Identity Crisis
by Acutekitty1
Summary: When two certain teen detectives have to share the same room, it’s clear that some secrets are going to be discovered… but the question is who’s identity will be descovered first? Deathnote X Case ClosedDetective Conan
1. Encounter

Identity Crisis

Summary: When two certain teen detectives have to share the same room, it's clear that some secrets are going to be discovered… but the question is who's alibi will be broken first? Because for whoever's found out first, it doesn't take a detective to figure out what happens next. Deathnote X Case Closed/Detective Conan

Chapter 1: Encounter

Authors Note: Yes! I am back to writing fanfictions! I don't know if I'll finish Alchemy 101 though… my joy of Yugioh GX ended the second the whole society of light thing began. However, I have a new passion! Deathnote! Forgive me for using the English names for the Case Closed characters… I really tried using Japanese names, but due to no longer being able to download Case Closed episodes from Youtube, I am cursed to forever use the American names for that anime. If you really want me to try and get used to it, I might give it a shot… Oh, and this takes place before Light joins the investigation team, and before he gets into college.

Disclaimer: Don't own Death note, don't own Case Closed/ detective Conan… Wait, then what do I own?

The rain coming down from the sky splattered upon the ground. There was no one around. The rain was so intense, that no one wanted to be outside in this weather. Then a cab pulled up to a house, and three people came out holding an umbrella. Tallest was a man in his late 30's. He seemed rather annoyed. Whether it was the car trip or just boredom, he wasn't really in a good mood. Maybe it was the fact that because of some Kira person going around killing off the criminals, the people were too scared to commit any crimes, and for a detective like Richard Moore, no crimes meant no business. Next to him was a 17 year old high school girl, his daughter, Rachel Moore. She however was smiling. She enjoyed the car trip seeing as she got a good view from the window and was interested in seeing this new town. The third person was what appeared as an 8 year old elementary school boy. But looks were deceiving. In reality, this boy was the high school detective Jimmy Kudo, shrunk down to the size of a kid thanks to a certain mysterious poison. Due to the circumstances, he had to completely change his identity and fall under the alias as Conan Edogawa.

"I don't even know why we have to come here. He's just an old friend. I barely even remember him…" Detective Richard Moore said walking toward the front door.

"It's not like you had anything else do today…" Rachel said smiling. "Besides, Soichiro Yagami said he really wanted to see you again."

Conan wasn't really looking forward to this much. It's not like there was anything fun to do around this place. Rachel said that there was going to be some other girl there to play with, but he didn't care much. If she was anything like the kids he was used to, it only be annoying

Light Yagami had the TV in his room turned on. To his right he was studying for his collage exam… while writing names is his deathnote.

Ryuuku was standing over Light watching him write every word. Light was often boring when he was only writing names. There was nothing to do… why couldn't something interesting happen? His gaze shifted to outside the window "Light… it looks like there are some people coming. Another one of your girlfriends and her family?" He asked noticing the high school girl and chuckling.

Light gave him a confused look. He wasn't expecting anyone today. He looked for himself and saw the trio walking up to the door of his house. He walled toward his door to go downstairs. If anyone asked why, he'd just get a snack or something, but Sayu was already coming up to see him.

"Nii-san! They're here!" Sayu said smiling up at her brother.

"Who's here?" Light asked confused.

Sayu gave him a confused look. "You mean mom didn't tell you? Dad invited an old friend and his family over!"

Light then just remembered. He'd been so focused in school and deathnote he didn't pay much attention to it. He knew that some people were coming over, but he didn't know exactly when it was going to be. Though he thought he might as well check it out. Himself and Sayu walked down the stairs to see their father already greeting the guests.

"Thank you for coming Richard. It's good to see you again." Soichiro Yagami, Light's father said shaking the detective's hand.

"Yeah, whatever…" Richard said taking his hand. He barely remembered Yagami in the first place.

Sayu looked at Richard with a confused face. "Haven't I seen you somewhere?" She asked scratching her head.

'Uh oh…' Conan thought. Usually when someone said "Haven't I seen you somewhere?" was right before-

"Why yes! I'm the great detective Richard Moore!" Richard shouted out proud of himself. He had the usual smug look on his face

-Richard revealed himself for the big show off that he was.

Light however just understood what was going on. His dad wasn't the kind to invite old friends over out of the blue. He was 100% certain that Yagami was going to end up recruiting 'the great detective Richard Moore' to help on the Kira case. While he didn't think Richard appeared to be a threat, he knew he must be good if even Sayu knew who he was. Well he could bring it on. Kira wasn't going to let anyone get in his way. If anything, he already knew Richard's name so it should be very easy to handle this.

"Richard, why don't we talk in private. I'm sure you have many memories to share as well." Yagami said leading Richard to his room.

"Why not? Not like my daughter is going to get off my back until I do." Richard said following Yagami.

"Hello, I'm Rachel." She said introducing herself to Yagami's son. She had to admit, he looked like he could give Jimmy a run for his money.

Light put on a friendly face as he usually did with the girls. "Hello, I'm Light. Pleased to meet you."

'What's he doing warming up to Rachel like that?! He's way too old for her… ok, sure it's just by a few years, but it still not right!' Conan thought. "And I'm Conan!" Conan said butting in between Light and Rachel.

"And is this your little brother?" Light asked looking down at Conan.

"Kind of… we're looking after him for a while." Rachel answered.

"Cute kid." Light said patting Conan on the head.

Conan didn't really like this too much. He hated being treated like a kid, even though he kind of was one.

Yagami and Richard came out of the room with an agreement. "I have an announcement. Richard Moore and his family will be staying here for a few days."

Richard nodded. He only agreed to this due to the fact that Yagami wanted him to help him with this Kira case. Because of Kira, he was losing his customers… not only that, but if he caught Kira, he wouldn't just be famous. He'd be like some national hero!

"What for?" Conan asked looking up at Yagami.

"None of your business kid. You get a few days off from school, so it doesn't matter much." Richard stated having been sworn to secrecy about this. Apparently, Yagami didn't want anyone knowing he was on the case just yet.

"Just to let two old friends re-live some memories." Yagami said trying to make it seem normal. He actually only knew Richard from his middle school years. Normally, people wouldn't have this good of a memory, but when you learn someone is famous, your memory just happens to come back to you. "However, I'm afraid I can't provide you with a hotel, so my home is your home."

"So where are they sleeping?" Light couldn't help wondering.

"Well, I suppose Richard could sleep here on the couch… and Sayu has already agreed to share her room with Rachel… you'll be alright sharing a room with Conan, won't you?"

Light didn't like this at all. How was he supposed to continue with the deathnote when there was a little kid hanging out in his room! Sure, he was just a kid, but if he even touched a page from the deathnote, that kid would be able to see Ryuuku too, and that defiantly would end up in disaster.

"I can't have a little kid hanging out in my room… he'll interrupt my studies." Light stated.

"Oh Conan is very well behaved, aren't you Conan?" Rachel said smiling at Conan.

"Of course! I'll be extra quiet!" Conan shouted. Anything to keep this Light kid away from Rachel

Light tried to think of some excuse he didn't want some little kid in his room. Quiet or not.

"Don't worry Light, it won't be for long." Yagami assured him.

"Besides, I think Conan needs an older brother figure to look up to." Rachel said smiling.

'Kind of hard not to do when everyone's taller then me.' Conan thought. He looked up at Light.

That's when the eyes of the two hidden masterminds met. They didn't know why, but for some reason, they each got a message just from that first look. 'He's not who everyone thinks he is.'

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Please review!!! I live for coments


	2. Suspicions

Author's note: Why is it that I only got one review?! I know I didn't ask for reviews... and my story can't be that bad... but I beg of you all! Please review some! Your comments are what I live for!

Chapter 2: Suspicions

Conan and Light start walking up the steps to Light's room. Already Conan could tell this guy was no good news.

'No way is he going to flirt with Rachel' Conan thought. …Ok, maybe his mind was a little off at the time.

'Stupid kid. How am I supposed to write names with the little kid hovering over me. Its annoying enough Ryuuku around. Maybe I can get him out of the room with some candy.' Light thought

Conan then smelt something in the air. "Is that… apples?" He questioned. He let his nose follow the sent, and discovered it led to Light's palms. "Your hands smell like apples… do you use lotion?" He said snickering. Lotion… for guys, it was a sign of either hiding something, or gayness. 'If this guy's gay, I won't have to worry about Rachel' Conan thought.

"No, I don't use lotion. I ate an apple for lunch." Light said kind of intrigued. 'How could this little kid just 'happen to notice' that I had an apple in my hands a few hours ago. I didn't even really eat it. I fed it to Ryuuku.'

"So what games are we going to play?" Conan asked trying to be annoying. 'No way he's going to like staying with me… I'll make sure of that!' Conan thought with a smirk on his face.

"I'll be studying, and you can watch TV downstairs." Light stated.

Conan shrugged. "There's nothing that I like on right now. Besides, I really want to spend time with my new big brother." He said putting on a cute smile.

'He's like one of those clingy girlfriends that won't stay away… how do I dump a 8 year old?' Light thought to himself.

"We're going to have lots of fun together." Conan said hugging onto his leg. 'Because there's no way I'm letting you have any fun with Rachel'

Light opened his door and led Conan in. "Well here it is. Why don't you go get a mat or something so you can take a nap?" Light suggested toget him out of the room.

"No way! I'm going to stay up all night!" Conan declared.

Light tried to think of something else. "How about you go watch this Doremon DVD downstairs." Light suggested pulling out a movie from his childhood.

'How insulting! He's trying to sway me with cartoons!' Conan thought. "Are you trying to get rid of me?" Conan asked tearing up a bit. "Rachel! Light hates me!" Conan shouted just to be annoying.

Rachel immediately rushed up to Conan's side the second he cried this out. You could hear her footsteps pounding up the stairs from miles away. "What did you say to him? He's just a kid!" Rachel shouted.

"I just wanted him to watch T.V. while I study. What's wrong with that?" Light said trying to act innocent.

"Well you need a break then! Why don't you play with Conan here? I'm sure you'll like him. He's a very sharp kid. He's especially good at shogi. He even beat dad… which really isn't that much of an accomplishment." Rachel said patting Conan on the head. "If you need me, just yell for me Conan." Rachel said walking out of the room.

'Shogi? A kid like his age beating a master detective? That's strange… there's defiantly more to him then meets the eye.' Light pondered. "Ok then, what do you want to do?" He asked.

Conan smirked. He had a idea of how to have some fun. He pulled a small box out of his pocket. "Time to play a game that brings out the worst in all men." He said with a smirk on his face. "Where one truth always prevails"

'What is this kid talking about? Could he know… no, that can't be! He's just a kid' Light thought wondering what this kid could be thinking of.

Conan then opened the box. "Put on your best Poker face!" He said showing the cards. This would be a good way to humiliate him!

Light gave the kid a strange look. How did he even know about this game?!

"Let's play." Conan said shuffling the deck.

A few hours later, they were really getting into the game.

Conan was playing very well for his age, making the moves that an adult (without the influence of alcohol) would make. 'A simple card game can tell a lot about a person… how often they lie, how truthful they are, how well they can act. It's the perfect game to figure out someone's personality.' Conan thought looking at his cards with a triumphant look on his face.

Light was confused a bit. How was this kid able to beat him? He was only 8. Sure, Light didn't exactly play this game often, but he thought he could hold his own against a kid. It wasn't only that, but he saw a look of determination in his eyes, and it didn't look like it was from playing Poker. No, he could tell this kid wasn't looking for victory. He was looking for something else. But what?

"Hey Light, I'd fold if I were you. The kid's got you beat… again." Ryuuku said smirking as he watched the game. This was fun. Seeing a teenage human being beaten by a child human was just… interesting.

"Quiet…" Light muttered to Ryuuku. He was almost certain now that this kid couldn't be normal. It just wasn't the game… his movements seemed so familiar. He was being so unexpected for a kid his age. He was doing the opposite of what he'd think. If he had a disappointed look on his face, which would normally mean he got a bad hand, he'd end up showing something like a Royal Flush. He was even card counting! This kid was no fool. He was analyzing his every move. He was playing like… a master detective. Then one thought came to Light's mind 'Could this kid… be L?'


	3. Big Brother

Author's Note: Eck! I did it again! But it's summer, so I'm back! I'll work on more chapters as soon as possible. I've even put out a new fanfic! I am determened to wrap all my previous fanfics up as well! You might even see a sequal to Kingdom Farts if I get to it! ...Although I don't know how many potty jokes I have left in me.

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Chapter 3: Big Brother

Conan and Light continued playing their little game of poker.

'What's up with him?' Conan wondered. 'He's acting like it's this intense moment between us and we're in a life or death situation… a sure sign that he's hiding something'

'But this kid can't be L… this young? I suppose it's possible… but there's no way this kid is normal.' Light thought as he lost another hand.

Just then Rachel walked into the room. Then she saw Light and Conan playing poker. "What's going on here?!"

Conan put on an innocent face. "Light's teaching me a fun new game… he says it's especially fun when there's girls playing and that way they bet clothes instead of mon-"

"What horrors have you been teaching this kid?!" Rachel said holding Conan close to her as if she was his mother. "Teaching him to play poker?!"

Light looked at the kid confused… did he just blame me for his game? And say I taught him that strip poker was fun?

Ryuk was rolling on the floor laughing hearing this. "He got you again! Man, that human has defiantly found interest in humiliating you. This is even more interesting then usual!"

Light was really tempted to shout at Ryuk, but that would just make him look insane. He had to come up with a solution. He had to turn the tables on this kid. "Actually, he was the one that pulled out the cards and demanded we play…"

"Do you think I'm going to believe Conan knew this before? He's just a kid!" Rachel shouted.

'Being cute does come in handy!' Conan thought to himself.

"Well you can check for yourself, look at the betting table." Light said pointing to how Conan had a bunch of chips. "Personally, I don't gamble, but only played for the kid's sake. If you ask me, he is a master at this game."

"Conan? Is this true?" Rachel asked turning to him.

Conan tried to put on a cute face. "Well… I read a few books on it, and I saw something about it on TV… and I did see Richard playing it with a lot of girls! He looked like he was having fun so I wanted to-"

"Dad?!" Rachel exclaimed. She started running out of the room. "He's going to get it! How many times have I told him not to do these things, and in front of poor innocent Conan!"

Light stared at Conan. He just got rid of her with a few words… he knew this kid was either pure evil, or a lot smarter then he looks… or both. "So why were you trying to throw me under the bus?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Conan said acting all innocent. "There's no bus around, and you're way too heavy to throw."

"Don't bother playing dumb kid. I know you're smarter then you look." Light stated.

"Most people are surprised to know that! I just read a lot of books and watch the discovery channel." Conan said continuing with the innocent.

'This kid is toying with me?! But he's only 8!' Light thought. "For some reason, I don't believe that."

"Well, I am part of the Jr. Detective League. See!" Conan said holding out his little Jr. Detective League badge.

Light rolled his eyes. More toying. He was thinking about maybe using the deathnote, but he'd have to save that if things got really bad. Perhaps he was just being paranoid. "Are you trying to follow in Richard's footsteps or something?"

Conan nodded… though he always pretended to look up to Richard to use as a excuse to stay around him during detective work. "Yup! I'm going to be a private eye when I grow up." To anyone, it would appear as if he really was cute kid… though why wasn't it working on Light? Perhaps like his dad, Light was also a detective.

"Well there's no mysteries around so why don't you just go play." Light said getting irritated.

"I am playing." Conan asked. "With my new big brother!"

"Why don't you play with your big sister then?" Light asked.

"I can do that any time! I've never had a big brother." Conan responded continuing to be cute. He did wonder why he was continuing to irritate Light… no chance he was going to get together with Rachel after the poker thing. Maybe it was because of the fact that he seemed kind of suspicious for some reason.

"What about Richard?" Light asked. "Isn't he like a father to you?"

"Not really… he's not much fun when he's not solving mysteries." Conan said. 'Ha! Richard a father figure! That's like saying Rachel is a defenseless little bunny!' Conan thought.

"Fine, I'll just continue with my school work then." Light said going to his books. If he really was a kid, he'd have to get bored of his studies very quickly.

"I'll just play around then." Conan said taking out a game boy out of his pocket. He had been playing it on the taxi ride here. Though he couldn't help wondering about why Richard wanted them to stay here. Business perhaps? But then why didn't he tell them. He had read in the newspapers about a murderer who could kill people through heart attacks… maybe that's why Richard was here. He was kind of interested in finding out who Kira was himself. Sure, criminals were bad, but some of them had been only sentenced to a certain number of years of time in jail, not death.

Ratio continued to work on his studies. He didn't risk taking out the deathnote with this little kid watching. Conan would have to fall asleep sometime.

But Conan did not just get bored… while Jimmy was in the body of a 8 year old, that didn't mean he had the attention span of one. He put the game boy away after an hour and came up with something else to do. He took out some maps of the surrounding area, and tried to see if there was a pattern between the people who were dieing… besides the fact that they were all criminals, nothing.

Light glanced over at what Conan was doing. He saw maps out and there were dots all over it. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Nothing…" Conan said putting the maps away. It wasn't exactly normal for a kid to be trying to figure out this kind of stuff.

Light didn't think he should interfere, but something seemed strange about what this kid was doing. He took a closer look at one of the maps and realized something. "You're not going to get anywhere if you try figuring out a pattern of the deaths. Don't you think people have tried that. Besides, you're just a kid. You shouldn't worry about these kind of things. Kira will be caught eventually." He said putting on a smile and a fake act.

"Maybe, but no harm in trying." He said giving back the same smile. 'Why has he completely changed how he acts? So what if I try? It gives me something to do… something tells me he knows something.'

'This could mean he really is L… but why would he show up in front of me? Could that mean I'm a suspect and he's decided to watch me personally? Whatever it is, he can do as he likes. He won't find anything suspicious about me.

Ryuuku continued to watch the situation. He glanced over at the little kid's book bag. Like most kids, Conan had his name on the tag of his book bag, due to Rachel thinking he'd lose it. "Conan Edogawa…" Ryuuku read confused. But his eyes said differently. His shinigami eyes were telling him this kid's name was actually Jimmy Kudo, and his eyes were never wrong. He gave a chuckle. "Humans really are interesting."


	4. Restless

**Chapter 4: Restless**

Autor's note: Yes, I know I've once again gone to who know's where... in fact, my sister actualy had to sit me down, and wouldn't let me do anything until I finished this chapter. So this chapter is brought to you by MidgetFan1... although if it comes to this again, just blame the TV or something like that. Although she just wanted me to do this because I finished reading the deathnote manga, which put her in a deathnote mood. And while I'm at it... go Matsuda!

Disclamer: I unfortunatly will never own Deathnote or Case Closed. But if I did, I'd make a spin off to deathnote with Matsuda as the main character, with him as a super hero fighting crime and evil Shinigamis! And Conan could fly too and he could be... Irelivant Sidekick boy made for the puropose of making little kids feel special! Or ISBMFTPOMLKFS for short... ok, that's not so short either.

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It soon got late, and both Conan and Light reached a stale mate. "I'm going to bed now." Light said climbing into bed. Maybe he could wait until Conan was asleep and judge as Kira then.

"Ok." Conan said climbing into bed.

Light was about to wait until Conan fell asleep… until he noticed Conan was keeping one eye open. Did he really suspect he was Kira? No way! But better safe than sorry. He turned his head and started to fall asleep. He had a few criminals set up to die today as usual, just incase he was in a position like this… although he never expected a little kid putting him in it. All he could do now was wait for morning to come.

Conan watched carefully. 'Maybe I'm too paranoid… but something just doesn't seem right about him. He knows something and he's hiding it. Maybe he's just annoyed to have a little kid sleeping in his room watching his every move… or maybe it's some thing more. No use thinking about it. He couldn't watch Light all night. All he could do now was wait for morning to come.

The sun rose steadily to bring another morning. It was peaceful and quiet. The sunlight smiled brightly on the two young boys. (Stop thinking that way you perverted fangirls! They're on two different sides of the room! No crossover slashes!) It seemed like nothing could ruin this peaceful silence. That is, until a sound so great it made the entire room vibrate as if it were an earthquake. Both Light and Conan's eyes opened wide trying to figure out what it was. Maybe it was an earthquake, but neither of them had experienced one this big.

"Wake up!" Rachel shouted pounding on the door with the strength of a thousand men. "It's Ten o'clock in the morning! You've had enough sleep!"

Light looked at his watch. He had overslept… he tried to sleep, but it was hard knowing someone was watching you. He looked at the little kid that deprived him of said sleep. He didn't look much better than he did.

Conan rubbed his eyes. Maybe he shouldn't have worried so much, but he found himself waking up in the night several times to see if Light was still asleep, to watch for a hour, but maybe he really was being paranoid. He really needed to relax.

Rachel completely ignored Light and went to Conan's aid. "Awe, you must have had trouble sleeping. Did you have any nightmares?"

Conan decided to take this way out, not tell her that he was watching Light, and nodded. "I had a scary dream that a reaper was chasing me. It was really scary" He made up. It had just been a coincidence with his choice of words. He had seen a TV show a few days ago about how the Grim Reaper went crazy and tried to kill all of humanity so he could finally have peace and not do his job anymore… and strangely, that wasn't a lie this time.

Light's eyes widened. Reaper? Did he mean Shinigami? Could he have touched the Deathnote and saw Ryuuk? Was this the kid's way of saying he knew about the deathnote? Maybe he was just being paranoid… he really needed to relax. "You sure you just haven't been watching too much TV?"

"Light!" Rachel exclaimed. "He's only a kid! You should comfort him… there there Conan. I know a way to cheer you up!"

"What's that?" Conan asked. He pretended to wipe his invisible tears to look traumatized.

"There's a street fair going on not far from here!" Rachel said holding up an article in the newspaper. "I'm sure that would be fun!"

Light's eyes couldn't help to glance at the story on top of the page. 'Murderer at large! Children left parentless' was the headline, describing how some lunatic cracked and started killing random people on the street. The article included a picture of the murderer and his name, as if just to torment him. Light could hear Ryuuk's laughter in the background. Heck, all of Japan would have if they had touched the deathnote!

Conan looked at the newspaper disappointed. He wasn't much of a fan of street fair's. Usually they were just ploys to get people to visit their various shops by bribing people with treats like popcorn and cotton candy to do so. And to make it worse, there was usually a small kiddy ride, where Rachel would push him on the ride saying it would be fun, only to have him bored out his mind as he listened to "Pop-goes-the-weasel" a million times while he rode around in a circle on a small pretend rocket as he watched his brains pop out of his head. "Ok Rachel! I'll get ready!" Conan exclaimed. 'Maybe if I spend enough time 'getting ready', she'll forget all about it, and it will be too late to go.'

"Ok Conan." Rachel said smiling and exiting the room.

Light looked down at Conan. They were both once again alone in the room together. "So what's with this dream you had?"

"It's nothing." Conan stated. "Anyways, I barely remember it anymore."

"That's not something you'd say after you were just crying about it." Light replied.

Conan thought about that, but came up with a response. "That's because there was nothing to cry about… it was just a dream. I mean, reapers aren't real, right?"

Yes, Conan was saying this sarcastically, but in Light's mind, he was testing him. "True…" Light said staring at this kid. "They're just as real as little kids who are as smart as Sherlock Holmes."

Conan smirked. "Well maybe that second one isn't too much of a fantasy."

Light rolled his eyes pretending not to care. "Someone's a little too confident…"

"And what's wrong with confidence?" Conan asked.

Light decided just to drop it. "Just get ready." He said looking toward where he hid his deathnote. 'There's no way he could be L… he's too young…' He looked back at Conan. 'One thing is for sure. He's not who everyone thinks he is.'

"Ok!" Conan said acting once again as the little kid everyone believed he was. He thought about how long he had been able to deceive Rachel and Richard into thinking he really was a child… maybe Light was doing the same? No, he didn't mean Light had also been turned into a kid and was trying to get the people who did it to give him a way to turn him back, but maybe he also was deceiving people to thinking he's something he wasn't. It seemed like his family had no problems with him. But his detective instinct was defiantly telling him something different. 'One thing is for sure. He's not who everyone thinks he is.'


	5. Engage

Help! Someone help! The IB program is coming after me, and it won't stop until every creative thought in my head has been turned into something about the French revolution or some other fact I don't need to know! In other words, if you're angry about the wait, blame the school. I wrote this chapter because a friend I missed very much wanted to see it, so here it is. I've made it extra long, so you better enjoy it. If you're lucky, I might throw you a bone during Winter Break as well. Although I don't know if I'll be able to pull in a Christmas special. That would be too spontaneous... but don't forget, Christmas Spirit can warp time if there's enough of it! -cough- Reviews -Cough.

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**Chapter 5: Engage**

"You two better get down here or I'm coming up to get you!" Rachel shouted from downstairs getting angry.

Conan's eyes widened. A mad Rachel made World War II look like an episode of Barney. He rushed his clothes on abandoning his idea of stalling for time so he wouldn't have to go. If Rachel came up here… no way he wanted to even think about that.

Light looked down at Conan. Why was he so terrified of some girl? He could understand a child being afraid of a parent, but this kid seemed terrified of the idea of Rachel coming up to get him. Could L be that scared if he had asked Kira to kill him on national T.V.? Maybe he was mistaken about the L thing… but that kid still wasn't normal. He shrugged and looked down at the drawer where he kept his deathnote. He planed on making that murderer feel the wrath of Kira. He'd take his aggravation from this little kid out on a few criminals.

Conan stormed down the stairs and stood at attention for Rachel's commands. "Ready to go!" He announced.

Rachel looked down at him and smiled. At least Conan listened to her better than her father did. He claimed to 'Have too much work to do. I'm too busy' when she invited him to come along. Yeah right. Who the heck works when they're staying with a friend? "Hey, you're coming too Light!" She shouted upstairs.

"I'm busy studying." Light said reaching for the ballpoint pen so he could get the deathnote.

Rachel's shadow started to climb up the stairs. This girl was tired of the excuse 'busy'. He was coming to the street fair whether he liked it or not. Besides, he seemed like a nice boy, and perhaps if Jimmy came along he'd storm back to her side out of jealousy.

Light put his arm down for a moment. He couldn't grab for the deathnote just yet. When he looked up, Rachel had this 'do you have a death wish?' look on her face. You know, the one that even shinigamis had come to fear.

"You're going to the street fair." Rachel commanded. Her fist then slammed into the nearest bookshelf with all the naughty magazines and law handbooks falling to the ground with it. Light dropped the pen in fear as a new expression entered his eyes. One that has not been seen in the history of man kind since Yugioh GX premiered on TV. Light had feared. And a woman of all things!

Ryuuku burst out laughing. "Kira can't handle a High School girl? Humans truly are amusing!"

"Fine, I'm going." Light grumbled. 'More out of annoyance from that Shinigami than some girl though.'

Rachel cheered. "We're all going to have so much fun!"

Ryuuku got off the bed. "This should be interesting to watch. What is a fair anyways?"

Light wasn't going to bother to explain. He grabbed the keys to his car and headed downstairs. Rachel and Conan hoped in the back since at the moment, Light was the only one with a car. "So where is it anyways?" Light asked.

While Rachel blabbered on with directions, Conan just stared out the window bored. What was the point of going to these sorts of things when they were all the same? By the time he got to actually looking out the window, he looked up at the street fair. There were booths selling kids sugar on a stick, also known as cotton candy. There were people sending out ads of their store, accompanied with a bribe of candy. There were those teacup rides that made you spin round and round until someone got motion sickness and the person to the right of them ended up with disgusting chunks all over their face. And worst of all… there was a man dressed in a Godzilla suit taking pictures with kids.

"Come on Conan! We've all got to take a picture!" Rachel said rushing Conan out of the car the second Light parked. Then she proceeded to grab Light's wrist as well. Pushing herself ahead of the line of screaming little kids and forced a pose. "Cheese!" She cheered.

The picture appeared as follows. Conan had crashed onto the guy with the Godzilla suit, resulting in him laying on the guy in the suit that would make most people feel very uncomfortable. Light was half way in the picture being dragged in by Rachel as he was begging for dear life… while Rachel herself was there grinning with a victory pose.

"What now?" Rachel asked as Conan apologized to the man in the Godzilla suit and promised his wife would never see the picture. That's when Rachel spotted the teacups. "Let's all get on this one!"

It was time for Light to take his stand. Show that he wasn't going to let some girl push him around. He was the manipulator, not her. He uttered the powerful word that most men have either said walking away victorious or died at just attempting to utter it. "No."

Conan's eyes widened. He tried to signal Light with a 'Make up for it now' sort of look. He wasn't exactly fond of the guy, but no one deserved to have Rachel sicked upon them without knowing what they were getting into.

"You do mean, 'There's no way I'm not going on this', right?" Rachel asked giving Light a death glare.

"No, I mean I'm not going." Light answered. He tried not to look into her eyes. It was said that if you looked into the Gorgon's eyes, you'd turn to stone.

"You're going." Rachel said with an evil smirk.

'Oh No!' Conan thought. He could try and do something… but then again, he had warned him. Now to sit back and watch!

By the time Light woke up, he wasn't even aware he had been knocked out. He looked around him. Little kids were climbing into the giant tea cups, dragging their parents along as well. Light attempted to get off the ride. No way was he going to put up with this. That was until, he realized he couldn't move. Rachel had tied him to the center of the ride. He looked at Conan wondering why he didn't try to do anything. He found his answer.

Conan was bursting out laughing. This had happened many times to him after being with Rachel for a while, both as a kid, and a teenager. He always said to any friends that might have gone along with him 'It's not funny!' But it wasn't until now that he realized how wrong he was. It was the most hilarious thing on earth, and he was happy to watch it.

"Please buckle your seatbelts!" The person controlling the ride announced to all riders. "And if you are a pregnant mother, prone to motion sickness, have back or stomach problems… thank you for signing the waver before the ride saying you can't sue us."

Conan shrugged and looked down for a seatbelt. He looked all over for it wondering where the heck it could have gone. That's when he saw the little kid that had exited the ride a little earlier.

"Look at the prize I got Mommy!" The kid cheered holding up a ripped seat belt. "I'm going to take it home and show it to daddy!"

"Your dad's dead." The mom responded coldly holding the child's hand walking on. "And while I'm at it, Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and the Thanksgiving Leprechaun aren't real. And to add on to that, I'm not your mom either."

"Yay!" The kid said skipping on. "My parents could be someone better than you!"

Light smirked. "Don't you wish you were the one tied to the ride now?" He asked.

"Oh no! Conan! Hold onto me!" Rachel shouted hugging Conan as soon as she noticed the missing seat belt.

"Nope!" Conan said answering Light's question. This was often a very fun position to be in.

Then all of a sudden, the world started to spin. It was as if they had each taken a large dose of alcohol. Beauty was Pewee Herman and Ugly was Madonna. The world was now only a swivel of colors. Soon to add to the mix was some greenish-brownish liquid coming from Light's mouth. Conan happened to be sitting to the right of him, so we all know where it landed.

"I'm so sorry for making you go on the ride! I had no idea you were prone to motion sickness!" Rachel exclaimed.

"It wasn't you he barphed on." Conan muttered trying to get the chunks off his clothes.

"I'm the one that should apologize. I tried to tell you, but I didn't want to ruin your fun. I was hoping to stay and watch you and Conan have fun…"

"I'm so sorry!" Rachel said with sad eyes. "I'll go get some snow cones to help settle your stomach." She then rushed off with the strange idea that sugars help to settle a unsettled tummy.

Conan began to glare at Light.

"What?" He asked imitating a confused face.

"I saw you put your finger down your throat. You threw up on purpose." Conan said annoyed.

"Really?" Light questioned imitating Conan's innocent appearance. "I wasn't aware that happened." Light said with a smile.

"I'm sure you do it all the time. How else can you keep up your supermodel-like appearance?" Conan said getting really annoyed.

"I'm not some anorexic freak if that's what your indicating." Light replied.

Conan's eyes started to drift. "What's Ann-Or-Ex-Icie?" Conan asked looking innocent again.

"I think you know very well what it means… you do seem to be a gifted student, am I right? You seem like the type of kid that gets straight A's without even trying. Rachel did say you were pretty good at shogi."

Conan flinched a bit trying to come up with a response. "Anyone can beat Richard at shogi" He responded. "Besides, I'm only good with puzzles…" He said trying to cover it up."

"Really?" Light asked. "Because I wasn't aware that kids even knew how to play strip poker or have the idea that 'little kids who are as smart as Sherlock Holmes' couldn't be too much of a fantasy. In fact, how do you even know about Sherlock Holmes? No elementary student I know has been able to understand a single word in the book series."

Conan could not answer. No one had bothered to ask the question to him… he had only one excuse left. "T….V… said something about it." Conan said trying to string together the usual excuse. 'Come on! You're a teenage detective, and all I can think of is T.V.?! I really need to start planning these excuses ahead of time!'

"Conan! Light!" Rachel cheered carrying about 29 cotton candy sticks, 18 boxes of popcorn and 3 snow cones. How she could carry that much, no one dared to ask. "This should help some!" She said able to hand Light his snow cone.

"Thank you for being so kind and considerate." Light gave Rachel one of those award winning 'You can't help but love me' looks. "I'm afraid Conan hasn't been giving me the easiest time about my sickness… it has plagued me since childhood, so I've been unable to ride even the merry-go-round at the park. Yet all he seems to do is laugh and point fingers at me making fun of my disability."

"Conan? Is that true?!" Rachel exclaimed. "You shouldn't do that! It's not nice at all!"

'Oh no! He's turning the tables! This is so unfair?! If he wasn't coming on to Rachel before, he sure is now. Why couldn't he be gay?!' "I don't know what he's talking about! He's making it up!" Conan exclaimed.

"True, that is a possibility." Light said while biting his thumb. "But I can't help but point out the fact that who is more likely to make up a story or excuse. An educated high school student who has already passed these childish blame games, or a child itself who is still going threw this phase."

For some reason Light's deductions seemed to remind her of Jimmy. She smiled at the memories coming to greet her… as thousands of little kids tried to steal the cotton candy and popcorn in her arms.

"Even with the snow cone, I'm afraid my stomach is still acting up… perhaps we could go back home now?" Light asked.

Rachel snapped back to normal, now with empty hands. "Of course. Come on, I'll drive." Rachel insisted.

Wow… he was able to get on Rachel's good side while being able to leave this place at once. He was grateful for getting to leave, but hitting on Rachel was something he could not forgive. "Can I get shotgun?" Conan begged. As long as Light didn't get to sit next to Rachel, he was fine.

"It's not safe in the front!" Rachel insisted. The airbags could hurt you if we crash!" Rachel exclaimed.

'Stupid little kid's body…' Conan thought annoyed. "But… I want to sit next to you." He tried again with his eyes tearing up. "I feel so lonely in the back with no one next to me."

"I'm sure Light wouldn't mind sitting next to you." Rachel said with a smile.

Rejected! There went the plan with continuing to woo her. For some reason, this kid seemed a bit overprotective of his older sister… or however Rachel was related to Conan. He didn't have a clue. Although he didn't really look related to Rachel. Maybe he'd bring it up later.

Conan proceeded to holding Rachel's hand… while making sure he stayed in between her and Light. He then started to randomly hum, 'He loves me, he loves you not'. Or she in this case.

The game wasn't over yet. Besides, he didn't need to have Rachel crawling all over him. Just fond of him enough to not try and kill him every moment of the day. 'No matter… at least I've learned one thing about this kid. He's smarter then the average child. But it's not only that… he's defiantly hiding something.'

Ryuuku continued to stalk the threesome standing behind Light. This day had been much more fun then the usual, 'Write names all day' fest in Light's room. He watched each of the human's lifespan continue to drop by the second. But there was still no way to tell who would go down first if the deathnote was in play, and one of them could easily kill the other with it. And still there was the matter with the kid's name being different then the one he gave. Could he be L? Could he be another foe for Kira? Ryukku didn't care about such things or even the outcome. All that mattered to him was the excitement that would happen until it was only the victor would remain living.

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_Just for all of you who don't know, The Gorgon is a mythological creature, who you might have guessed, turns it's victims to stone. Just think Madusa!_

And now, I must go back to my precious roleplaying- Uh, I mean schoolwork... yeah... REVIEW!


	6. Research

Author's notes: In the eternal words of the now hated Britney Spears, Oops I did it again. I skiped out on my fanfictions... there's that part of me that says "Just quit, you know you won't update" But then the rest of my body is shouting that I'll just end up making another fanfiction I won't finish. So I'm going to see this through! I'm going to make sure to work on this every saturday right before death note... I probaly won't keep this promise, but it will get my sister reading over my shoulder right now to make sure I work on this for at least a hour before I watch deathnote... yes, I know, she's my own personal Shinigami hovering over my head able to kill me at any time. Except this one wants fanfiction instead of apples... along with some chocolate and cookies. Kukuku

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Chapter 6: Research

As soon as Rachel, Conan and Light returned to the Yagami residence, Rachel remembered something. "Oh Conan, you're still a bit messy from when Light threw up on you. How about you get the water started so I can give you a nice bath." Rachel suggested. She didn't see anything wrong with it. In her mind, it was just cute to give a little kid a bath… although for some strange reason, Conan didn't seem to hate it as much as other little kids did.

Conan immediately blushed red. He stormed up to the bathroom without a word, not sure whether he should wait for Rachel or get it over with before she came in.

Rachel was about to go upstairs when she was stopped by Light. "Excuse me, but I wanted to ask you something about Conan… is he your brother, or cousin perhaps? He doesn't look like he's related to you."

"He's not." Rachel answered. "He's related to my friend Jimmy and his neighbor. Jimmy was out, and my neighbor was too busy with his weird experiments to take care of him… so I did."

"Jimmy?" Light questioned. Why did the name sound familiar. He heard the region where Rachel was from once over the dinner table when his dad was describing Richard More. "You couldn't possibly mean the famous high school detective Jimmy Kudo…" He had read an article in the newspaper once. Everyone was saying he was a prodigy or something, but in Light's opinion, he was just a lucky amateur. Nothing big, just a small conversation piece destined to join the rest of the trash in the newspaper.

"Actually, yes." Rachel said rolling her eyes. It seems everyone knows about Jimmy. "But he was out of town working on some big case… anyways, I took care of Conan ever since, and he's been like a little brother to me… why do you ask?"

"No reason, just wondering." Light said casually. 'What happened to this kid's real parents anyways? Is Conan just staying with them for a little while, or are his parents in the army or something so they're moving around so much that they can't take care of him. That seemed a bit unlikely for some reason. "Anyways, I'm going to get back to studying right now." Light said heading up the stairs. He had to write down a few names in the death note since this whole day had been wasted on a pathetic carnival.

"Glad I could help." Rachel said smiling. "Hey Conan! I'm coming up now!" Rachel shouted up the stairs.

You could hear a panic coming from the bathroom as well as someone slipping in some kind of a rush.

Light entered his room and locked the door as usual. He turned on the lamp to start with his usual writing when he noticed something. A backpack… it must have been Conan's. But he couldn't help noticing something in bold letters. A tag coming from the backpack with the name "Conan Edogawa" on it. Was someone tempting him to write his name? Of course, he wouldn't even attempt it. If the kid was L, which he probably wasn't, the name would end up being a fake, hence a waste of time. And if it was the real name, the kid would die of a heart attack. A annoying kid, yet still innocent of any crime, would die by 'Kira's' hand, which might raise suspicion upon him, since he doubted Conan had any medical conditions that could lead to heart attacks. Then again, he could die of a 'accident' but again, the child was innocent of any crimes… for now. As he was about to take out the death note, he heard a knock at the door. He opened it to see a little boy with black hair rushing into his room. It took a moment to realize it was Conan. He looked a bit different without the glasses… and clothes. He was wearing a towel running away from Rachel.

"Why do I keep forgetting to bring my change of clothes in with me?!" He shouted rushing under his blanket. "Hide me!" He begged putting a finger over his mouth.

Rachel then poked her head into the room. "Is Conan here?" Rachel asked.

Light considered simply turning Conan in right there, but then he thought he might use this to his advantage. "Nope. It's so quiet, I would have noticed if someone came in."

Rachel sighed and left the room muttering "Conan didn't even start the water, let alone take a bath."

Conan sighed poking his head out of the covers, now wearing his PJ's after a quick change. "Thanks…"

"Why were you on the run anyways?" Light asked. "Are you a bath hater?"

"Um… sure, yeah!" Conan exclaimed. 'You want to try taking a bath with Rachel?' He thought to himself. Immediately he realized that there was no way he even wanted to bring that question up again. If he had to imagine that… Uh oh. The image was already in his head. Who cursed him with such a active imagination?! It was worse than the parings on fanfiction!

"So since you owe me one… why don't you tell me a little about yourself." Light said casually.

Conan started to get a bit suspicious. "I'm sure you don't want to hear that… I'm boring. Besides, you have studying to get to!"

"Let me worry about my schoolwork… besides, I'm sure with you being around the great Richard More, you have many exciting stories to tell." Light said hiding his smirk in the darkness.

"Yeah…" Conan said with his own 'in the dark' smirk. Richard's level of intelligence made potty humor looked refined and classy. "But it's just boring mysteries… I barely understand any of it."

"But you understand Sherlock Holms." Light pointed out. That's when he realized something. "Wait, you wouldn't happened to be named after Sr. Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, would you?"

"Yup!" Conan said going along with his usual story. "My dad's a big fan. That's how I know Sherlock Holmes. He used to read me the books when I was little, and make it so I could understand them."

"Dad, huh? Speaking of which, where are your parents?" Light asked.

Conan's eye's darted a bit. No one ever questioned the disappearance of his parents… No one ever asked about that… Most people thought Richard was his dad! There was only one way to cover this up. A fake tear came to his eye. "I don't like to talk about that… I miss daddy very much."

Any normal person would feel ashamed for saying such a thing. But then again, if you felt joy in killing criminals, you wouldn't exactly be considered normal. Nope. For all Light knew, he might have killed off Conan's dad as Kira. Well, that would explain Conan's minor interest in the Kira case… "Then what about your mother?" Light asked.

Great! He just wouldn't drop this, would he? "Mom is very busy with her job… and when she went off on a business trip and left me with Richard and Rachel, she thought it was easier to let me stay with them until work got less busy." Conan quickly made up.

"Really…" Light said not believing it for a second. He had an evil smirk on his face. "Hey Rachel!" He shouted out.

Conan's eyes widened as he hid under the covers right after giving the universal signal for "Please don't! I'll do anything"

Rachel's head popped in the room after 3 seconds of the shout. "Yes? Have you found Conan?" She asked

Light looked down at Conan. He looked like he was going to give him the right answers now. "I'm so happy to have you and Conan's company. Hopefully this won't be your last visit here. I wouldn't mind seeing you again."

Rachel blushed. "I'm glad to hear it…" For some reason, he was now reminding her a bit of Jimmy. She wandered out of the room.

Light now turned to Conan, who was flaming mad. It was defiantly not the move he expected. He knew that look on Rachel's face. He had seen it many times. It was the, "Memories of Jimmy" kind of look. But he couldn't have even known who Jimmy was… he certainly didn't know Light, and Rachel wasn't alone with him long enough for her to tell him. It had to be chance.

"So why don't you tell me again exactly what happened to your parents?" Light asked.

Conan sighed and gave the sad look. "I told you… and I don't think they're coming back for me. That's why I don't like to think about it. I don't think they care about me anymore."

Light, remaining the cold person he was, didn't care. But he didn't think he was going anything else out of this. "What about a different subject then… Rachel tells me you're related to a friend of hers. I think he was called, 'Jimmy Kudo'"

Conan was now shocked. It had to be that five minutes when he ran off for the bath… how much did Rachel tell him?! "Yeah, Jimmy is the best. Too bad I don't see him too often either. But why are you bringing up him? Have you met him?"

Light decided to lay a trap of his own. "In fact, yes. About a half a year ago, he came to work on a case with my dad. I had a short conversation with him, but he seemed like an alright guy."

Conan didn't know what to make out of this. "You met Jimmy…" He knew he never met Light. Uh oh. It was a trap… and he fell for it. He had to come up with an explanation for his reaction. "Wow, he never told me anything about going here before… usually he spends most of his time with Rachel." He said emphasizing Rachel's name. "Hey, you want to know a secret?" He asked

Light didn't know what to make of this. "Sure…" He said now a bit curious.

"Rachel told me she likes Jimmy. So if she and Jimmy get married, I'll be related to her! We can actually be like real brother and sister then!" He exclaimed. It took every urge in his body to not blush like he did the first time when he learned this news.

So that was it… Conan thought he was hitting on Rachel, which he was. But why would he care so much? That was enough information for now. If he pressed anymore, Conan wouldn't just think of this casual conversation. "Well anyways, I need to get back to my studying.

In Conan's eyes, this was a victory. 'That's right! You back off!' He thought in his head. "Ok, I'm going to go watch some TV now." Conan said thinking that his victory deserved a reward. He marched out of the room with a grin on his face… forgetting that Rachel was still searching for him.

"There you are!" Rachel exclaimed. "Time for your bath!" She said picking Conan up by the shirt collar and heading to the bathroom.

Conan may have been a great detective… but escape artist? Not so much. 'Not fair… she probably has this house wired!' Conan thought to himself. 'And again this body prevents me from fighting back!' He said trying to get out of Rachel's grip, but it was no good. Even as Jimmy, he still had been unable to escape Rachel's grip.

Light smirked as he saw Conan and Rachel leave the room. He had gotten some information… but how much of it was true? He'd think about that later. But as for now, he had about a 10 minute period alone, and he had to catch up on writing names. He took out his death note and prepared writing as many names as he could in the short 10 minute period.

Ryuuku kept watching extremely bored. Even it was just 10 minutes, Light got really boring after about 3 minutes. So he started looking around the room, but since he had seen everything that was usually in Light's room, time to snoop around Conan's stuff! Or Jimmy… or whatever his name was. He then saw a wrist watch left on the floor. Maybe if he was lucky, it was one of those funny talking watches that would say something like "Eat at McBurgers or die". He pressed the only button he could find, and a dart shot out. Ryuuku jumped back in shock as it shot through his face, even though he knew things that threatened him went right through his body. "Do many human watches do that?!" Ryuuku questioned examining it. "Which button shoots out apples?"

Light noticed something hitting the door. His eyes widened, suddenly worried that someone might have heard that. He immediately rushed to the door trying to find what Ryuuku knocked over, or whatever it was that made the sound, only to find a small dart launched into the door. He removed the dart and started to carefully observe it. "It doesn't look like it can kill…" He said noticing as a drop of some sort of liquid came out of the dart. "Is this poison?" Light questioned trying to look at it. "Is this kid an assassin?" How was he going to test this to see if it really was poison? He placed the dart in the back of the death note for now.

Conan should be coming back soon, and there was no way he was going to be caught with dirty hands… then again, Conan's screams coming from the bathroom hadn't stopped, so that probably meant he wasn't coming back for at least another 5 minutes. Was the darts this kid's only weapon? He opened Conan's bag looking for something that looked incriminating. He flipped through Conan's textbooks. Nothing. Perhaps the pencils… nope. Hey wait, what about this strange pin? He saw what looked like a dial on the back of it and a button on it's side. He moved the dial to hear some static coming out the back of it. Was it a radio? If so, it didn't seem like anyone else was using it at the moment. He then started to hear footsteps. Looks like Conan was coming back. He tried to fix up the mess he had made and headed back to stash the death note. The only evidence being left from his investigation was how he wasn't able to put everything exactly the way it was.

Conan stumbled into the room, put into fresh PJ's even though it was only 4:00 PM, and there was no way he was going to bed. Why did she have to make it so he couldn't even leave the house due to how he was too lazy to put on regular clothes. He sighed and plopped onto the mat that was his new bed. "After that, you're not getting anything else out of me." Conan said hoping for no more questions.

Light didn't figure he'd get any info after the stunt he pulled, so he didn't bother. "Fine…" Light mumbled starting up his computer. It was time to hit the world's greatest place for finding out literally anything you need to, and sometimes never want to know.

"Hey, what are you using the computer for? Are you one of those people who claim to be studying, but are really just chatting online with their friends?" Conan asked.

Light wasn't paying attention to Conan. "Studying." Was all Light said.

Conan shrugged. "I'll just read some manga then." He wanted to keep a eye on Light, and he had plenty of manga borrowed from Mitch to keep him occupied for hours.

Light's eyes were filled with the glow of the computer screen. Hundreds of webpages past his eyes. Google, newspaper articles, and pictures, most involving Sr. Arthur Conan Doyle, but some involving a 'Jr. Detective league' solving some case or even Conan providing the last key evidence in one of Richard Moore's cases. He tried to find a pattern in all this data, and was able to pin point one thing all these Conan Edogawa articles had in common. There was nothing on him before he was 6. A coincidence? Maybe, but ever since Light got the death note, nothing ever was a coincidence. He had one more thing to try before he could confirm his hypothesis. He searched censuses, government records, and various other online files. But every time he searched Conan Edogawa, for the name, face, age, the kid that was now staying with his family, the kid that seemed to have a interest in the Kira case, the possible identity of L, he only got one response. No mater how many different ways he spelled the name, the result was the same:

NO MATCH FOUND

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Review! And I might work! If the school doesn't enslave me... oh why do I bother! If my atention span doesn't fall too short on weekends! Reviews help boost my short atention span! They are loved forever! (They're the reason I wrote this chapter. Aparently you spaming my e-mail with reviews makes me want to write)


	7. Trial

Autor's Note: OMG! I actauly kept my promice this time around! Cookeis for all! It's a new chapter after one week! Not 1 week and 3 months, ONE WEEK! Well, I actauly finished this chapter last night, but I finished it so late that I had no one to edit it. About the chapter, I made Conan smarter like everyone wanted. I hope you're happy! I had to do research for all of you! Also, there's not much Raito in this chapter, just in the begining as a recap... but I had to do that so you could see another character. I think all of you will be very happy with this person's appearance.

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**Chapter 7: Trial**

If Conan had been watching this search, he probably would have pulled the plug out or put a stop to that computer the second he saw his alias being typed into that Google search engine. Light wouldn't have gotten anywhere if Conan was watching… and that's because he wasn't. He had other things to worry about than some student studying for college entrance exams. As Conan descended the stairs of the Yagami household a few questions were arising in his head. 'Why did Richard bring us here? He wasn't one to do friendly visits, unless it was urgent. And if it was just a friendly visit, why were they pushed up in one house? Even Richard would only do that if it was a short stay… but after being here a few days, it didn't seem like they were going to leave any time soon. Why were they here?' As Conan asked these questions to himself, he heard Yagami's voice down the stairs.

"Is everyone out?" Yagami asked just to be sure there was nothing to interrupt them.

"Your wife, daughter and Rachel just went out to shop for clothes, and that son of yours is studying. Last time I checked Conan had fallen asleep with some manga." Richard answered not getting what was with the security. He had known Yagami had something urgent to say, but what was so urgent that he couldn't even let his own family know?

Conan stopped in his tracks. It looked like all his questions were about to be answered. The second Yagami and Richard's back's were turned, Conan went quickly and quietly back up the stairs to listen in without being heard. It was hard to eavesdrop, but if he was seen, he'd never know why Richard had decided to bring them here.

"You shouldn't have even brought your family here. I told you over the phone that this is a dangerous case." Yagami warned once again.

Richard shrugged. "You didn't really give me much notice to set them up somewhere. Besides, Rachel can handle herself. She'll take care of Conan while we'll catch Kira"

Kira? Conan had guessed that might be it in the beginning, but to find out he was right was strange. Wasn't the great detective L on this case? Richard might have been famous, but not as famous as L. If even he was stumped, did that mean that the battle against Kira wasn't going as well as the police informed the public.

Yagami shook his head. "You can't be sure of that. Kira can kill without being anywhere near a person. I didn't want to have to bring you into this… I know I shouldn't have…" Yagami had begun to regret his decision. But after seeing his old friend on the news, solving unsolvable case after another, he had to at least call.

"Hey, I'm the one that said I'd solve that case." Richard said with a smile. "I humbly agreed to come over and risk my life for the sake of saving others." He said trying to act like a selfless defender of justice. In reality the conversation had went something along the lines of 'Richard, have you heard of the Kira case?' 'Yeah! I'd like to give that cereal killer a piece of my mind!' 'Well I know you're enthusiastic, but-' 'Don't worry! The Great Richard Moore is on the case!' Richard was only in this to get his business back and be a hero.

"Yes… I can't thank you enough. I've already discussed this with L and-"

Richard immediately cut him off. "You're working with L? And you spoke with him?" Richard knew that Yagami was head of the investigation, and that the Japanese police were working with L, but talking with him?

"Let me finish. I've discussed this with L, and he's agreed to meet you on one condition. He wants to give you a short test to prove your worth as a detective. I showed him past cases you've solved, but he insisted on seeing it for himself." Yagami explained.

"L wants to meet me?" Richard said unable to hold his excitement. This was the big leagues! If L claimed that Richard was a great detective, his business would double… no triple! People would come from across the globe just to see him! And to add on top of that when he'd catch Kira? He'd be set for life. He then tried to act more professional… but it was a pathetic attempt. "Well, I'll have to show him that I can compete with his intellect."

Conan could barely control his laughter. Richard had only just learned the word 'intellect' last week, and it was on the back of a box of Kellogg's cereal! How could he compete with L? But this was interesting… Richard working with L on the Kira case? The world was doomed if that's what it came to. It was up to detective Conan to take this case. If not, thousands could die by the hand of Kira.

Yagami nodded. "Then we need to leave. We'll get our instructions at the hotel." Yagami said leaving out the door.

Richard followed, wondering what test L had for him.

Conan had a difficult time trailing Richard and Yagami… they decided to take a car, which was hard to keep up with. Luckily, Conan was able to grab his solar powered skateboard before he went out the door. Although it didn't work too well at night, it provided a use as a set of wheels as Conan held on to the bumper of the car. After about 15 minutes of hanging on for his life, the car stopped in front of a hotel.

"Is this where L is?" Richard asked.

Yagami shook his head. "No, this is the test. L has left us instructions of how to find his actual location." Yagami walked up to the bagage claim of the hotel. He handed the woman behind the counter a ticket that L had given him. In return, Yagami was not given a letter, code or even baggage. All that was placed on the counter was… a figurine. A figurine of the Statue of Liberty.

"Is this it?" Richard as confused. "Is this the right thing lady?"

The woman nodded. "A odd looking young man told me to give this to whoever gave me the number… he was hunched strangely, his hair was messy, no shoes and he was wearing some mask claiming it was for 'protection' of some sort. I wondered if he even had the money to stay at this hotel, but despite his appearances, he tips well."

"This must be the test… what do you think it means?" Yagami asked. L had not informed him of where he was going to be. L doubted Yagami would give out the answer, but he might give unintentional hints, so he just left it to the two to figure out themselves. L had however informed Yagami that he had the city wired, and if worst came to worse, L would call him when they were too far off the trail, and he was no longer interested in having Richard around.

Richard thought for a moment. He held the souvenir in his hands. He pressed a button on the bottom of the stand and the torch lit up. "Cute… a little lamp to light the way." He said trying to analyze what it could mean. "The figure is obviously a reference to the Statue of Liberty, and where is that? New York! And what a coincidence, there's a restaurant in town called "New York, New York" that specializes in cuisine from that place? That's got to be where L is!"

Yagami was impressed that Richard was able to come up with a solution so quickly… although something was bothering him. That didn't seem like the kind of place that L would be. If L was at a restaurant of any sort, he'd be somewhere that served sweets, not just American meals. Even without knowing L, it seemed to simple. Yagami would have preferred to think of an alternate solution… but this was Richard's test, so he'd just have to go with it. He took the statue from Richard's hand's trying to see if there was any other hidden meaning to it… there wasn't.

Conan, watching Richard knew that he was way off. L was a very secluded detective. He wouldn't just show himself at a public restaurant out in the open, even if he was wearing a mask. From the little information Conan knew about him, he'd want to go to some place private. Conan tried to analyze the meaning of the figurine. Conan was too far to examine the light up figurine properly, but there didn't seem to be anything in there other than the statue… maybe an inscription on the bottom of the statue? No… even Richard would have noticed that. So Conan had to focus on the statue itself. What did he know about the statue of liberty? It was in America of course… also known as Lady Liberty… it was given to the American's by the French… it was inspired from the poem "The New Colossus"… but there wasn't any exact information. There was no hint directing to what exact info was needed… except… that's when Conan realized it.

Conan stayed close to the walls of the hotel, hoping not to be seen by Richard or Yagami. If they weren't going in the right direction, he'd have to investigate for himself. He didn't expect to approach L. He couldn't exactly lead Richard to him either. So why was Conan trying to hunt down L? Maybe it was just curiosity that led him to wondering who L was… or maybe it was the idea of a challenge. If L was testing Richard, that meant he doubted his abilities. Maybe L knew that Richard wasn't the one behind his success. 'I'll just watch'. Conan thought to himself.

Before leaving the hotel, Conan swiped a matchbox that the hotel had at the check in counter. If he was right, he'd need a 'lamp' of some sort to confirm his suspicions. Conan rode on his skateboard to the location where L's hint was. It wasn't too far from here… although Richard and Yagami were going in the completely wrong direction. They weren't going to find L any time soon if they went in that direction.

(Author's note: Just letting you know, the solution to the little problem I've left is below. I've completely made up the location (Although the restaurant, 'New York, New York' that Richard's going to actually does exist in America!) but you should get what the reference is to if you really try to figure it out. But for those who don't feel like stretching out their brain, keep reading!)

It was all linked to the light on the figurine. It wasn't just a light. It was the key to L's location. He wouldn't just have a figure for nothing. A picture would have done if he wanted to make a reference to the statue, or the city. But L wanted to put emphasis on the light. More specifically, the light in the poem, "The new Colossus". There was a exact part that said 'Who's flame is the imprisoned lightning'. Imprisoned lightning was probably electricity, or a light bulb of some sort. And the flame? They were both connected. In front of a French styled hotel, (Which made sense since it was the French that gave the statue of liberty to the Americans as a present) was a large flame. But of course, it would be impossible to keep a fire in a large glass statue. That's why the light ran on electricity. "Who's flame is the imprisoned lightning." That hotel had to be where L was. It wouldn't take long before he got to the hotel.

Meanwhile, in a certain location, L watched the entire city safely from his hotel room with the other members of the task force.

"Looks like the Chief and Moore are headed in a completely different direction." Matsuda said watching intensely at the screens. "Maybe they're taking another route… although my guess is they're way off."

L shook his head as he sat watching the monitors. "There was a lot of room for interpretation on the clue I left. Depending on how the person receiving the clue interprets it, shows what kind of detective they are along with the knowledge they have. I've plotted out all the possible choices, which is how I've been able to get the cameras up around the city for this occasion. The way Yagami took with his friend shows that he has minimal knowledge. He took the simplest solution without seeing any other. He's a detective, but one that makes too many quick choices. No help whatsoever." L said taking a bite of the cake in front of him.

Matsuda was about to say something along the lines of 'But that's the type of detective I am.' But he knew no one would pay attention to him if he did.

L barely stopped to chew before continuing to talk. "But the real show isn't with Detective Moore… rewind the tape." L said pointing to a screen in the corner. It was around the time when Moore and Yagami arrived. He pointed to around below the car. "Do you see what I'm talking about?"

Mogi squinted at the screen not understanding. "There's… a boy with a skateboard next to the car?" Mogi guessed. It was hard to tell at night.

"Don't you find it odd that a child is playing, not only at this late at night, in the street…" Then after rewinding the tape a bit more to show the boy's entrance. "But hanging on the backside of their car..." Then L fast forwarded the tape a bit. "As well as following Moore and Yagami in the hotel.

"Do you think he's a spy?" Matsuda suggested. "He's got to be tailing them."

"That's what I thought… until…" L then fast forwarded the tape further to when Richard and Yagami were leaving, with the boy coming out shortly after. "He doesn't follow them… he takes his own route."

"His job was done?" Aizawa guessed. It seemed pretty simple.

"Maybe… although it's quite a coincidence that instead of heading to his home, wherever that may be… he's heading to this exact hotel." L said having finished his cake, putting the last sweet bite in his mouth.

"But… Ryuzaki… he's just a kid. Even Richard Moore couldn't understand that clue you left him. How could a little kid figure out where we are?" Ukita questioned.

L then made his way to a shish kabob of sweets. "I'm interested in learning myself. It would have been difficult for even me to figure out that clue at his age. Maybe we'll find out soon enough." L said watching the monitor of the boy with glasses heading to the hotel.

Conan arrived at the hotel, and it seemed to be an accurate description of where L could be. He might be in one of the hotel rooms, or a meeting room. A hotel could be private enough. But the location wasn't specific enough. It was a large hotel, so where was L? He thought of the next line of the poem that involved some sort of light. "From her beacon hand glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command" Conan repeated to himself. World-wild welcome? A meeting room? Most likely… but which one? Perhaps he needed some info about the hotel. Conan picked up a brochure at the front desk. His eyes scanned threw the types of meeting rooms. They were all named after famous French figures. "Napoleon… Robespierre… Antoinette… Bartholdi…" Which one was it? Conan didn't know too much about French history, but the room L choose, had to connect to the clue. 'Napoleon was a French Emperor and took over most of Europe during his reign, although that has little to do with Lady Liberty… Marie Antoinette was involved in the French Revolution, way before the time of the statue of liberty… it's either Robespierre or Bartholdi. Conan rushed to the meeting rooms when he realized something. The other part of the line. "Her mild eyes command". Eyes was the key. Was that L's way of saying that he was watching. Maybe he should turn back… if he wasn't back at the Yagami residence by the time Richard got back from his wild goose chase, it would look suspicious. Not to mention what would happen if he went through with this. How was Conan going to explain he figured this entire thing out… what if he was falling into some sort of trap? Could L somehow be connected to the Black organization? It was a strong possibility, but Conan's detective intuition told him no. If it was the Black Organization, they couldn't have expected him to follow Yagami and Richard. The clues were meant for them, not him. And Yagami seemed to know L. This wasn't a trap. But would it still be alright to reveal himself to L? No… he wouldn't be giving away anything. He was just an inquisitive kid. One who 'admired Richard's work'. In so, he would be able to justify his following Richard, and desire to solve the case.

Conan rushed to where the meeting rooms were. Once arriving, he immediately knew which one L would be in. The Bartholdi meeting room. How did he know? While the other doors were extravagant, one made of crystal, another silver, and then bronze, this one was made of gold (Or gold looking material). The final reference to a light of any sort in the poem. This was it. Conan stood in front of the door. There was no doubt that it was locked, and L probably wouldn't answer the door if someone just knocked. No, L even had this covered. This is where the matchbox Conan swiped would come in. Richard and Yagami had their 'lamp' with the statue of liberty figure… but Conan, having no such thing had to improvise. He struck the match, holding his hand over the flame so the smoke wouldn't set off the fire alarms. But then he held it up high, putting in the final piece of the puzzle. "I lift my lamp beside the golden door." Conan announced stating the final line of the poem.

And that's when someone opened the door.

* * *

"Um Richard, are you sure this is where L would be?" Yagami asked. He couldn't give any help... but this just obvious that it wasn't the place.

"Of course it is!" Richard exclaimed walking in. "Who wouldn't want bagels and lox?" Richard said taking his seat. "It won't be long before L comes along to praise my genus for solving his riddle."

After a few hours of waiting, Yagami was starting to think this was a waste of time. "Richard, maybe there was another meaning... you could have misinterpreted the clue. If L meant to show up, he would have done so already."

"If that's means you're not eating your lox, I'm taking it." Richard said picking up the expensive fish and putting it on his own plate.

"This is hardly a time for breakfast." Yagami tried to remind Richard. "It's not even the right time of day."

"Say what you want, but I'm still taking your lox." Richard said putting Yagami's food in his mouth.

* * *

Remember to review, and you might just get another chapter! ...With cookies.


	8. Alliance

Sorry! I didn't forget about you! My computer just completly crashed! ...Or was that my excuse 3 weeks ago? I seriously can't remember. I blame my sister who hasn't been editing my work! But one of those weeks was just because I couldn't come up with anything... this chapter is kind of a filler too. I've got to knock better stuff in my brain. Maybe I should get Raito to find a digital world, and seek the aliance of talking monsters that look like pokemon. And if they defy him, DEATH NOTE!Yes... I can see it now.

* * *

Chapter 8- Alliance

"Congratulations on finding this place." L greeted the boy, bending down to Conan and getting at eye level with him. Although Conan could have no way of looking into L's eyes. His face was covered in a festival mask, just in case. "Cookie?" L asked offering the boy a cookie, as if it were a prize for his quest.

Conan immediately surveyed the situation. Judging by how this person was covering up their face, they were probably involved in the Kira case. Was this person L? He then looked behind the person to see a group of people in suits. Not good. Conan had expected L to be working alone, not with some investigation team. Judging by how the person in front of him was wearing a mask, he seemed to be heading the investigation. But whether it was L or not, this had gone on too far. Conan had to keep his alias as a little kid. Even talking to someone as secretive as L was bound to bring attention. The few people that already knew he was Jimmy Kudo was too many. Time to come up with his excuse. He blew out the match. "Sorry Mister, but I'm not supposed to accept sweets from strangers." Conan said smiling. "I'm not supposed to be talking to strangers either, so I should be leaving."

"Not so fast." L said picking up the boy by the collar of his shirt, so now he was up to L's hunching level. "I doubt you're here by coincidence. If you are, I'd be happy to return you to the hotel room you're staying at. I can look up the hotel's guest list and reunite you with your parents." Of course, L could do such a thing, but L had seen him travel across the city. He didn't seem to be from this town, but he sure wasn't staying at this hotel.

Conan tried to struggle his shirt out of L's grip. He hated being so tiny and physically handicapped. "If you don't let me go Mister, I'll scream!" Conan threatened. It was the only thing he could do. He had to get away from these guys immediately. At least this was a public place so he could probably get away… but these people had already seen his face. Would they really pass him off as an innocent kid now? They had his face, but they couldn't have known who he was. He had to get away now.

L shook his head. "You won't have to resort to such tactics. I mean you no harm… I only want to know how you were able to solve the test I set out for Detective Moore."

So it was L… but did this mean Conan was still in danger? "I… don't know what you're talking about. I was just playing around." Conan claimed. The innocent act was his last hope. It didn't seem like it would work. Like he had speculated, L must have had the area covered. There was little chance of getting out of this hotel.

L then put Conan back down on the ground. "You're free to leave if you like. My case and whatever caused you to solve my riddle are two completely different matters. I have no reason to interrogate you on your motives. But if you are willing to satisfy my curiosity, maybe you would be interested in helping solve a case, young detective."

Conan looked back at the hallway. He could make a dash for it. He could run back to the Yagami residence (Even though Conan had no idea how to get back), beg Richard and Rachel to leave this city, and be out of this situation for good. But then again… the chance to work alongside L. Put his detective skills to use, even in the body of a child. End the hundreds of killings caused by Kira. But what about those other men? Conan looked back on the group of people inside the meeting room just staring at him and L. Could it still be a trap? Conan stayed silent, trying to think of what to do.

Then to break the silence, a voice declared, "Ryuzaki, you can't possibly believe this kid could have solved your mystery. He has to be here on coincidence." Matsuda was trying to figure out why L was taking this kid so seriously… from the video, Matsuda thought it might be a midget, but there was no getting around the fact that this was just a child. Even a prodigy couldn't be a skilled detective at this young age.

"Keep your comments to yourself Matsuda." L declared. And of course, L's word was law so there was silence once again. He then looked down at Conan. "Whether or not you've made your decision, please step inside. Hotel surveillance is watching, and I prefer to keep my privacy." L said walking back toward the golden door. He held the door open for Conan. "Again, you're free to leave any time you like. If you want to leave, by all means do so. I have better things to do than to deal with someone who won't even take credit for his own actions."

"Are you working with anyone besides the people in that room?" Conan asked trying to calculate if this could be some trap. Did L ask him to leave because he already had his name and face? Or was he really just curious? "Are you working with the police, or any type of organization?"

"I'm not at the liberty to tell you exactly who I'm working with." L admitted. "But I am not working with the police or an organization of any kind. If you're worried about your name or face getting out to the press, then I'll just inform you that everything said among this group does not leave this room. I've made sure there's no leak of information, so your identity can remain a secret."

Conan continued to think it over. "I'm just a kid… but if the Kira case is so desperate that it needs the brains of a child to help out, I guess I'm in." Conan said looking up with a cute smile.

L shook his head. "You might have the body of a child, but one thing's clear… your mind for surpasses the intelligence of an average kid." L then walked back into the room and sat on the couch (Which he had specially placed in a room originally meant for business meetings) in his normal position. "Care to take a seat?"

Conan walked in, still suspicious and sat down next to L… on the other side of the couch. "So what is it that you need me for?"

L nodded. "Down to business, huh? I'm guessing you aren't willing to explain how you figured out my riddle, why you were tailing Moore and Yagami, and how you're able to accomplish this even though you're a kid." L said a bit disappointed.

"You're a detective. I'm sure you'll figure it out." Conan said seeing how there were many monitors around the room. Most of them were around the city. He noticed Richard was on one of the cameras in some restaurant. So L just didn't have the hotel wired… he had the entire city wired. Did L know where he was staying? He couldn't have cameras in the residential area too... could he?

"The monitors there are just for tonight's event. I was hoping to find some use out of Richard Moore…" L said chomping on his cake, so his voice was a bit muffled. "But I'm guessing you're aware of Moore's incompetence as well." L picked up his cell phone, and before anyone in the room could object to L's use of a cell phone, he dialed Yagami. "The trial for Moore is off. Take him home. His so called 'talents' won't be needed." And before Yagami could respond, L hung up.

Yagami looked at his cell phone confused. "Richard… maybe we should get back home."

"But… what about L?" Richard asked confused.

Yagami didn't know how to break this to his old friend. "Well… L just called… and he said-"

"What, he couldn't make it?" Richard asked confused.

Yagamis shook his head. "He no longer has a need for your talents." He said simply. "I don't understand it either but-"

"Oh I get it." Richard said annoyed. "The Great L is scared of a little competition! He wants the credit of catching Kira for himself! Well I'll show him! I'll make my own investigation. Come on Soichiro!" Richard said storming out of the restaurant.

Soichiro sighed. "And of course he leaves me to pay the bill…"

Back at the hotel, Conan was of course not satisfied by L's answer. "So you were expecting Richard, and got me. What is it that you wanted Richard to do?"

Part of the reason why L wanted to use Richard was because he was staying with Light. He was still unsure about Light, and Richard would be able to investigate him the way cameras couldn't. Yagami would always claim that his son was not Kira, so he wouldn't be able to see the facts that pointed tward the possibility that Yagami was Kira. But since he didn't know Conan was staying with the Yagami family, he couldn't use that. Or could he? "You were tailing Richard and Yagami, correct? What reason did you have for following them?"

Conan thought about making up a lie, but it didn't take much research to figure out that he was staying with Richard. "I follow Richard a lot… I've been staying with him for a while."

"The way you're referring to Richard, I doubt he's your dad… a relative maybe? Why are you staying with Richard?" L asked.

Conan thought about it. "No comment." Conan said crossing his arms.

L sighed. "Fine fine. You're allowed to keep some things to yourself… but if your staying with Richard, does that mean you're staying at the Yagami residence as well?"

"Um… yeah." Conan said confused. What did L care about where he was staying? Was it because Yagami was in on it?

"Then would you mind doing me a favor… I'm sure you met Soichiro's son, Light." L said sipping his sugar with tea. "There's a chance that he might be Kira… so would you mind keeping an eye on him?"

"Not this again." Matsuada said irritated. "How many times do you have to search him? FBI agents, hidden cameras and now asking a little boy to spy for you? When are you going to realize that you might be wrong?"

"It wasn't the major reason… just a minor reason why I wanted Richard." L said sipping his tea, although it would be very useful to have Conan spying on Light. Probably better than Richard since no one suspect a little kid. And if Light did, it would probably mean that he was very paranoid, or perhaps Kira. "The real reason I wanted Richard here was because as you can see, this is a small team. When Yagami mentioned Richard, he seemed like the type of person that would be willing to give his life to defeat Kira, and would make a great addition to this investigation team. I may be the greatest detective in the world, but by having another detective on this team can greatly increase our chances of catching Kira. So…are you willing to risk your life to stop Kira?" L asked.

Conan decided to choose his words carefully. "There are a lot of things I still have to do in life… there are still people important to me that I don't want to let go of. But I've seen a lot of criminals go to jail while seeing Richard work. They all deserve their punishment, but I don't think any criminal is so bad off that they have to die from a heart attack and leave this world without even saying goodbye. I don't want to lose my life… but to put a stop to all the murders. I think that's something I'd be willing to risk my life for."

"Strong words from a boy your age." L said putting his cup of sugar/tea down. "That's enough proof for me that you're motivated…but I don't know if Richard is going to stay much longer now that he's been turned away. You wouldn't be willing to stay while Richard goes back to his own town?"

Conan thought about it again. To have them out of danger would be a relief… but what if Richard did anything stupid while he was gone? Take on a case and fail miserably would be a nightmare. To have him ruin the reputation Conan had worked so hard to build up would mean losing his chance of getting his body back. "I'd prefer to have Richard and Rachel around." Conan answered.

"I thought as much." L said now with a lollypop half-way in his mouth. "I'll try and get Yagami to arrange a way for all of you to stay." That's when L realized something. "So, after being her for a little bit… would you mind giving us your name? Anything better than 'boy' or 'young detective'"

"It's Conan. Conan Edogawa." Conan didn't think for a second of giving him his real name.

"You do realize that if I were Kira, I could have you dead already." L said forming his hand into a gun, preparing to fire his imaginary gun at Conan.

Conan shrugged. "Maybe. But how do you know that's my real name?" He asked.

"Good point… you thought of giving me a fake name? Not even Yagami thought of that. Was it a precaution against Kira, or have you been using that name for other purposes?" L asked.

Conan gave the same statement as before. "No comment."

"Even your name must remain a secret? I guess I can't really complain from my position." L said stirring more sugar into his tea.

"But enough about that… what leads do you have on Kira right now?" Conan asked cutting right to the chase.

"Again, you cut straight to business." L said rolling his eyes. "Right now I plan on doing first hand investigation. I'm taking a certain collage entrance exam at-"

"Is this another plan to see if Light is Kira?!" Matusda jumped up and asked.

"Please refrain from further outbursts. There is a 5% chance that Light might be Kira., and that's 4.999 better of a chance then we have for the rest of the Japanese population." L explained, although in his gut, he was much more certain that Light was Kira. "After that suspicion is either proved or disproved… we'll see where the investigation goes from there."

"So you just want me to watch until then, huh?" Conan asked a bit irritated. He was expecting some big info… a secret mission… a behind the scenes battle… something more then just watching a person who could be Kira. Maybe it was because he was in the body of a kid and wanted excitement, but just watching?

L nodded. "And maybe if you can do that, you might be able to do something more productive around here."

"Uh huh… can you at least get me a ride back to Yagami's house?" Conan asked.

L sighed and picked up his cell phone. "If you insist…"

About a hour later, Rachel came back home from shopping with Sachiko and Sayu Yagami. "Hey dad, I'm home!" Rachel said with bags full of both food from grocery shopping and clothes from some personal shopping for herself.

Richard was on the couch drinking away his troubles, irritated with his rejection from L. "Yeah yeah yeah. You bring any more beer, we're out." Richard said throwing another empty can across the room.

"Dad!" Rachel scolded. "If you have to drink, don't do it while we're staying at someone else's house! What would Conan think?"

"Speaking of the little boy, where is he?" Sayu asked. She happened to look at Conan as an adorable new dress up doll more than a kid. "I bought him the cutest outfit!" She said pulling out a sailor's outfit. "I hope it's his size… I need him to try it on now!"

Richard shrugged. "I don't know maybe he's asleep or-"

But just then Richard's voice was interrupted by the sound of a car honking to signal it's arrival. But it wasn't just any type of car. A limo had just driven in front of the Yagami residence carrying one irritated little boy. "Is this his way of saying 'welcome to the investigation team?'" Conan asked himself. Just as he was about to step out of the limo, the driver stopped him.

"Wait, the person that hired me wanted me to give this to you." The driver said handing Conan a package with a note.

"Huh?" Conan questioned. He unwrapped the package to find… a belt. What was that supposed to mean? But attached to it was a letter.

'In case you find yourself in trouble, please send out the distress signal located on the buckle of the belt.'

-L

P.S. I don't understand why you've chosen to be a detective at such a young age, but you're still just a child. Don't let your line of work keep you from that.'

And attached to the back of the note… was a small bag of assorted candies and sweets.

* * *

Sorry fangirls. No Raito in this one either. Next time though, definatly! Now go eat cookies while I play with my new Detective Conan cards. (They have Kaito kid on the back of all of them! Now there's a guy that should be in the next chapter!) Don't forget to review, and Kaito Kid might sprinkle Fairy dust on your pillow!


	9. Promise

Sorry, this one's kind of short. More writer's block, but I've already got plans for the next chapter! (Let's just say I've saved up some cheesy fortunes and comic relief for the next chapter... hopefuly.) Also, I'd just like to say this now, Mello and Near won't be major characters in this entire fanfiction. I might make refrences to them, but don't expect Conan to join the Mafia or SPK. I'm also trying to figure out a way to get Kaito in there, but I don't see how it's going to happen. I will continue to try! Kaito is my favorite Detective Conan character! I wish his manga didn't end... but if there's ever a need for a theif in the fanfiction, he'll be there! (But if you realy want to see him, he's in my other one-shot fanfic. Check it out!)

* * *

**Chapter 9- Promise**

"

"Hey Light. Give me an Apple." Ryuuk said staring at Light who had just been staring at his computer for a while.

"Just tell me one thing… is that kid's real name 'Conan Edogawa?'" Light asked looking at the screen that had flashed up every time he searched the census for the name.

Ryuuk chuckled. "You want something, and I want something. What a coincidence." Ryuuk said with his eyes gleaming.

"I got it." Light said throwing an apple behind him. He usually brought up an apple to his room whenever he 'studied'. He wondered what would happen the day Ryuuk's obsession would lead him to just going downstairs and eating the entire stash of apples without asking.

"Alright… it's not his name." Ryuuk said taking a bite.

"And his real name is?" Light asked.

"You should have made the deal clearer. Besides, I can't tell even if I wanted to… on the other hand, if you really want to know, half your lifespan is all it takes to find out the name of some little boy you want dead." Ryuuk said snickering "I don't even know why you think it's such a big deal."

"Don't you understand?" Light asked. "Some kid just happens to come along with a great detective. But his name isn't his real one. He doesn't exist. My bet is that the detective is here to discover if I'm Kira. That's why him and his family gave us all fake names. In case I am Kira, I won't be able to kill them." But then Light thought of something. He brought up the Japanese census again to check Rachel and Richard's names. If they were fake too, he was right. But already Light knew something was off. If they were all fake names, why did the kid have a different last name? If they were posing as a family, wouldn't it make more sense to all have the same last name? He typed in the names… to find they actually existed.

"Heh, I could have told you that. But apparently you like to work and aren't generous enough to give me apples and resort to laziness." Ryuuk said eating the core of the apple and throwing the stem at Light's head.

Light brushed the stem out of his hair. "But if they do exist… does this mean the kid is working alone?" He turned around to check if he was still sleeping… to see he was gone. "How long has he been out?"

"How should I know?" Ryuuk asked. "I have better things to do then check into the sleeping habits of some kid. So what's your theory for what he's up to? Consorting with L? Or is it that he actually is L and he's just contacting the investigation team?" Ryuuk taunted.

"That might be it…" Then Light looked out his window to see a limo pull up. "Huh? Is it some celebrity?" He didn't expect it to actually stop at their house. Let alone for Conan to step out of it annoyed. He seemed to have some piece of paper in his hand. And a bag of something… was it another one of his gadgets? Maybe marbles disguised as bombs? Or maybe sleeping gas. Light shut down his computer and then went downstairs to investigate. He could always just say he was wondering what was with the limo.

"Conan! I was so worried about you!" Rachel said lifting Conan in the air. "I come home, and find out no one knows where you are, and here you are coming here in some mysterious car!" She then turned to the driver. "I'm not paying you."

"I figured as much." The driver said sighing. "At least I got tipped well in advance." He said driving off hoping not to get any questions. This didn't look like something he wanted to get into.

Conan had worked on an excuse on his way back. "I didn't want you to find out… you see, before we came here, I won a contest! To go to a candy factory! It was late at night, so I thought you'd never let me go. And it was only for one person, so you couldn't come with me." And here's where L's gift came in. Did he think of this ahead of time? "I brought you back a souvenir!"

Rachel then banged Conan on the head leaving a large bump there. "As sweet as that is, you can't just run off without me knowing where you are. There are scary people in this world that might want to hurt you!"

This was around when Light was getting downstairs. At least he knew Rachel wasn't in on it… or was this an act? Probably not. If she was in on it, she probably would have just gone with him or greeted him.

"And you!" Rachel said turning to Light. "How can you not notice Conan leaving just like that! You were supposed to watch him!"

"The kid threw you under the bus again." Ryuuk said laughing as he hovered over Light's shoulder.

Light quickly look at Conan's face. It didn't look like he snitched on him. He probably would have had some know-it-all smirk on. This must have just been Rachel being a mother figure for him. Besides, Light wasn't even aware that he was home alone with the kid. If he did, he'd be writing names instead of doing the research. "He must have snuck out. I thought he was asleep."

"That's no excuse!" Rachel said giving Light a bump on the head to match Conan's. "You need to look out for him! I don't know how long we're going to be here, but as long as we are, you two are roommates. You need to watch him as long as he's in your room."

Light rubbed his new bump. He'd have to figure out a way to prevent that… of course! Just a bit of flirting should make her tame enough to leave him alone… or want to spend every waking moment with him. But it would stop the bumps. Plus, he might be able to use her later on. "I'm sorry. You're right. The fault is entirely mine. I can't believe I was so careless with the safety of Conan, especially when you care for him like a brother. Please forgive me."

Rachel looked a bit flustered for a second there. 'Jimmy never asks for forgiveness. He just calls me stupid and says it's my fault.' But she wasn't going to just stand there. "Well… go back and get him to bed then. It's 1:00 in the morning!" She then looked at Conan who was about to put one of the sweets in his mouth. She immediately snatched the bag and the candy he was about to eat, causing Conan to bite his own finger. "No candy at this time at night!"

Conan frowned. Not only was Rachel getting closer to this guy who he hated, but she was starting to like a guy that L suspected of being Kira! And she took his candy! "I'll go to bed then." He said climbing up the stairs to go to bed.

"See you in the morning." Light said smiling at Rachel before following Conan.

Rachel gave a light blush. "Goodnight." She said smiling.

As soon as Light was gone, a smiling Sayu got up behind Rachel. "Ooohh! Somebody has a crush on my big brother!"

"I do not!" Rachel denied… but she couldn't deny the fact that she was blushing.

"And Cupid fires again!" Sayu cheered firing an imaginary arrow at Rachel. "You're not the first either. Loads of girls have fallen too."

"Sayu!" Her mother scolded. "If she wants to have a crush on your brother, at least give her the courtesy of thinking she has no competition."

Rachel continued to blush. "I'm going to bed." Rachel said rushing up the stairs to the room she shared with Sayu trying to get to bed before she got asked any more questions.

Meanwhile, Conan and Light were having their own discussion on Rachel's new love interest. "Why are you flirting with her?" Conan asked.

"Flirting?" Ratio questioned pretending not to notice it. "I was careless, and I just admitted that. And I just said I'd see her in the morning. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"You're being too friendly." Conan said crossing his arms.

"Well aren't I supposed to be friendly? You are our guests." Light said brushing it off. "Besides. Why do you care so much about her? You're too young to have a crush on her if that's it."

Conan turned his face away annoyed. "Just don't get any funny ideas. Her and Jimmy are meant for each other. Rachel told me so herself."

"What does he have to do with this anyways?" Light asked. He remembered asking about how Rachel picked up Conan, and she mentioned something about Jimmy Kudo being out so she took care of him. "I heard Jimmy went out… if he doesn't come back, that makes Rachel fair game, doesn't it?"

This got Conan angry. "Don't talk about her like she's your prey or something! She's not just going to come running to you just because Jimmy's not around!" Conan shouted. He tried to keep his cool. "Besides… Jimmy will come back. Someday… I just know it." He didn't know how long it would take. But he had to find a way to get back to his original age. Not just because there was a new guy in town. But because Rachel needed him, and he couldn't stand just being a child in her eyes and nothing more.

Light tried to analyze why Conan could get so angry about this Jimmy. He had to play a part in this somehow. Rachel did say he was related to Conan. Were they brothers or something? "Jimmy didn't just go out of town… he went missing, didn't he?" Light speculated.

"No!" Conan shouted. "Because he still cares about Rachel and wouldn't just abandon her like that! He calls all the time to make sure she's ok. He's just busy." Conan claimed. He was almost to the point of tears. "He's going to come back. I know it." He couldn't stop one or two tears from dripping down his face. He hoped it was too dark to see them out of shame.

Meanwhile, Ryuuk was attempting to hide his laughter. 'This kid is really this Jimmy guy… yet his girlfriend doesn't know it. He's hiding from her, but he's right under her nose! This is like one of those sitcoms on the human TV!' Ryuuk thought to himself.

Light couldn't understand the tears. He knew acting. Tears were hard to fake, but it was possible. But somehow he knew this kid wasn't faking these tears. Either he cared a lot about Jimmy and wasn't sure himself that he was going to come back, or Jimmy was actually dead and the kid just didn't want to accept it. Either way, he realized he was just tormenting a little kid at this point. His paranoia was getting the better of him, but the part of him that was still human told him that if he wanted to continue to seem normal, he should back down. "I'm sorry." Light managed to say. He wasn't sorry, but hey, he had to say something. "I had no idea… I'll just forget I ever asked." Light then climbed on his bed. "Let's just both get some shut eye and forget this conversation ever happened."

"Ok." Conan said wiping the remains of the tears from his face out of embarrassment. "I'm just going to excuse myself for a second before going to bed." Conan said walking to the bathroom.

Although Conan's destination wasn't a bathroom. It was in fact, out of the house. At a certain phone booth across the street. Getting out of the house was simple, but he'd have to keep this quick. Armed with his bow tie voice changer and Rachel's cell phone number, he dialed the number desiring to speak with her again. Not as Conan, the little kid who she only looked at as a brother, but as Jimmy, her childhood friend that wanted to be with her more than anything.

Rachel heard her cell phone ring and was just annoyed. Who could be calling at this time of night? And when she was about to go to bed. Unknown caller? Normally, she would have let it ring and ignored it. But these days, she'd only get one unknown caller… could it be him?

"Hey Rachel. How are you doing?" Said the voice over the phone. Jimmy always acted like no time had passed, as if this was a friendly call.

"Jimmy…" Rachel said with both pain and happiness in her voice. "When are you coming back?!" Rachel asked as usual. "And where are you?"

"You know the answer to both those questions. I don't know when I'm coming-" but he was then cut off.

"Why is this case so important anyways?!" Rachel shouted in the phone. She didn't care if Sayu was now listening in, or if she'd wake up Conan and Light. The world no longer mattered to her. "Why is it so important that you can't just come back?"

Jimmy knew this would be coming. It usually did. "I don't want anything more then to come back. But until truth prevails I've got to keep working. I just want you to know I will come back. No mater what. I promise you that."

Tears could be heard over the phone. Rachel didn't want to just accept this promise. She felt like a child. She didn't just want to hear that he'd come back some time in the future. She wanted him by her side now. But whatever was keeping Jimmy, she knew it had to be important. If he wanted to come back, he would. So she'd have to trust him. "If you break that promise, I'll never forgive you!" She shouted into the phone.

Jimmy smiled, and even though Rachel couldn't see him over the phone, she knew he was doing just that only with the tone in his voice. "Why would I break a promise like that? I'd die before running off forever… I've got to go now. Now you promise me you won't go running into trouble."

"Hmh!" Rachel muttered. "I'll do whatever I want! If you want me to stop getting in trouble, come back and stop me yourself." She then hung up, trying to keep her pride, but she knew Jimmy heard her tears. "He has to come back…" She repeated to herself.

"Sounds like you're having guy troubles." Sayu said hearing the whole conversation… or at least Rachel's side. "If he's really special to you, he'll come back. Unless he's like my brother and has about 20 other girls to worry about." Sayu said with a smile.

"As if a girl could ever fall in love with him." Rachel said crossing her arms. But she knew one who had.

Conan sat in the phone booth staring at the phone. He expected Rachel to hang up. She usually did… but he knew one thing. She didn't mention another guy… so maybe that meant she wasn't interested in Light. With that hope, he walked back across the street to the Yagami residence, entering through the window, breaking back in without anyone noticing that he'd left. He just happened to take a long bathroom break.

Light didn't see anything in Conan's trip to the bathroom. But he did have this opportunity to check Conan's things. More importantly the note that Conan had come back with. He expected Conan to throw that thing away… and tear up the pieces… which much to Light's annoyance, he did. As degrading as it was, Light searched for every piece of the letter in the trash bin. He kept his eye on the door, wondering when Conan would come back, but whatever it was, it was taking him a long time. He wasn't able to piece together most of the note, but he was able to get this:

'In case y---------------- in trouble, please -------------------------located on ---------- the belt.'

-L

------- I don't understand ----------------------------- detective at ---------------------, but you're -------------a child. Don't let ----------------------- keep you from that.'

Light stared at the pieces of the letter. More importantly, a certain letter in the middle of the note. "L" Light said staring at it. It might have been cut off from a name, but Light was almost certain that this was from the L. It also seemed that Conan was hiding stuff from L as well with the 'I don't understand'. Light didn't understand either… but now he was sure of one thing. "He's working with L." Light repeated to himself. He scattered the pieces of the letter back in the trash can just in case Conan came back, but he still had the letter burned in his head. 'He's working with L' Light thought in his head. Until the sound of the door opening broke the silence.

Conan sneaked in the room hoping that Light hadn't noticed he'd been gone to long. But no one asks 'What kept you?' after you've been in the bathroom… unless you've been in there for about an hour, in which people will enter the restroom to either find you've run away or are dead. But 20 minutes couldn't have been too bad…

Light stared at Conan in a new way. His suspicions had been confirmed. The child had something to do with L. This meant that he was going to report anything he saw to L. This was almost as bad as the cameras… but if L wanted to use children to fight against Kira? Let him. He had nothing to hide. He would just kill outside of the house, and get information from outside as well. Newspapers and TV were scattered all over Japan. It wouldn't be difficult to find info about murderers and criminals, and then write their names down in the death note. He might even be able to use this kid. But how? He'd have to figure that out… but he knew one thing. L wouldn't be this careless to leave a note in the hands of a kid. Conan might have been smart enough to dispose of the letter, but L wanted him to know that he'd be watching him. That L would have an extra set of eyes watching him. 'Play all you like L. Keep your spy. Because while you have a connection to me, I can have a hold on him as well.' Light thought to himself. Controlling the boy would be easy. He'd just have to get to what he cared about most. And once he had that… he'd bring both the boy and L to the justice that was Kira.

Conan looked at Light. He had once again assumed that he was asleep. But Conan was watching. He had to be L's eyes and ears. But that wasn't enough. Conan intended to do some investigating himself. If this guy was Kira, he wouldn't be able to hide from him. But Conan really hoped this guy wasn't. Not because he cared about Light and didn't want to see him as a murderer, or even because he was scared about sharing a room with a mass murderer. It was because if this guy was really Kira, he knew Rachel's name. And in today's world, even if your name got out, it could mean instant death.

Alternate Chapter 10

When Conan first woke up, the first thing he spied was the smug look on Light's face. He was still dosing off, yet somehow, even in his dreams, he was confident about something. Whatever he was up to, it would have to wait. Conan got dressed, and as he was putting on his glasses, Light's alarm clock went off with the theme of some band called Nightmare playing. Once the band got to some verse about showing a new world, Light arose, still as smug as ever. "Have sweet dreams?" Conan questioned.

"Yes, but it also has to do with the fact that I've got something important to do today." Light said as he picked out a crisp shirt out of his closet.

Conan couldn't help noticing that the clothes he was picking out were a bit better quality then everything else in his closet. What was he going on a date or something? That's when Conan realized it. A date? It couldn't be with Rachel… they just met… and Conan had been watching the both of them carefully. He couldn't have asked her on a date… maybe it was just some other girl. Light looked like the type to have plenty of girls all over him. It just had to be a coincidence. But just in case, he'd have to keep his eyes on his roommate.

As Light walked down the stairs, he immediately noticed Conan watching him. Good. The kid would have to know what was going on for his plan to succeed. And just as he thought, Sayu and Rachel were in the kitchen making breakfast.

"Come on, tell me what he's like!" Sayu urged Rachel as she moved some pancakes off the skillet and onto a plate. "Is he usually that mysterious to make a phone call in the dead of night, or was he just trying to be romantic?"

"He's nothing like that." Rachel said blushing as she grilled some bacon. "He's more annoying… he only calls about once every few weeks or something. I haven't actually seen his face in over a year."

"Maybe it's like one of those romantic movies, and he's actually dead, but he knew he was going to die in advanced, so he set up recorded calls for you, and he knows you so well, he predicted everything you'd say, and then when the final call comes, he'll tell you he knew he was going to die, but his life was worth while, because he got to know you and loves you more then anything." Sayu swooned.

Rachel turned a brighter red. "Jimmy's not dead! And he wouldn't do anything like that. We're just friends!" It was then that she realized that her bacon was starting to sizzle to a coal black. Rachel, immediately realizing this moved the bacon onto the plate. But it was too late. They were crisped alright.

"Hey are you two cooking? Be careful with Sayu in there." Light joked as he walked toward the dining room table.

"Hey, Rachel's the one that messed up… although it was her idea for us to cook breakfast" Sayu said in her defense.

Rachel felt embarrassed for burning the food. "I just wanted to do something nice since you've been putting up with us."

This was too easy. Light just walked into the kitchen and picked up a fork to bring a slice of the burnt bacon to his lips. After taking a bite he smiled. "Just you putting an effort into it is enough for me."

Rachel blushed a bit. She seemed to be doing it a lot this morning. "It was nothing…" She said trying to be humble.

Conan was getting irritated. He had defiantly crossed the line. What was with his flirting?! He had to do something. That's when Conan walked in the kitchen. "Rachel! Are you ok! I smelt smoke! I thought that something bad had happened to you!" And that's when the fake tears started to form in Conan's eyes. "I thought I almost lost my big sister."

Rachel smiled as she set down her frying pan and kneeled down to give Conan a hug. "It's ok. If the house burned down, I'd be the last one you'd have to worry about."

Light looked down as Conan smirked as he embraced Rachel. He actually thought this was over? "Hey Rachel, since you're treating me to breakfast, it's only fair that I treat you to lunch to pay you back." Light offered.

"Oh I couldn't… I'm only doing this to pay you back." Rachel said as she put her pan in the sink to start washing it off.

"I insist. My treat. Or do you have something else to do with your day?" Light asked pretending to look a bit disappointed.

"Well… no." Rachel admitted. "Lunch out would be nice. You could show me around town.

Conan's eyes widened. He was going in for the kill this quickly! No way was he going to let them have a relationship. "Hey Rachel! Can I come too?"

Rachel then smiled. "Sure, it's not like it's a date or anything." Then she turned to Light. "I hope you don't have a problem… I'll pay for his meal" Rachel insisted.

"No, it's alright. The kids menu isn't that expensive." Light said making an emphasis on the kid part. Conan could come along if he wanted. It probably would get the message to the kid that he had control over Rachel, even if he did try to mess it up.

"Can I go too?" Sayu asked. "I haven't been out for lunch in so long!"

And now his sister was butting in? Was the world against him? "Well it was supposed to be-"

And that's when Richard walked into the room. "You're going out for lunch? Count me in too!" Richard exclaimed.

"Oh and I'll see if your father can get off duty to come too. This will be so much fun" said Sachiko Yagami coming in.

And now his plans were ruined. So much for the date that Light had expected. And his wallet would probably feel a lot lighter after this. Now instead of the nice fancy place for lunch, he'd probably have to resort to some place with a lunch special so he wouldn't have to break into his college money.

Conan smirked. This turned out better then he expected. He was able to get Rachel out of the so called date, and get a free lunch out of it, even if it was off the children's menu.

"Now that we have lunch planed, let's get back to breakfast." Rachel said putting what was left of the bacon and some toast on the table.

As Sayu brought in the pancakes, everyone sat down to have a nice breakfast. Sayu continued to try and press Rachel for details on her 'love life', Richard asked Ms. Yagami if she knew any places where they could get their kicks, while Conan and Light sat across from each other staying silent.

'Maybe I should talk to him.' Light thought. 'Being nice to him might make me seem kinder to Rachel. Although every time I talk to him, he seems to make me seem like some demented person. It would best to stay silent and 'stare dreamily at Rachel' so she gets the idea that I'm interested in her.' And as he decided, he gave this profound look as he stared into Rachel's beauty.

'I have to do something about this guy.' Conan thought. 'He might be Kira, and he's trying to get together with Rachel. It can't be a coincidence that he's interested. Either he just spontaneously falls in love with every girl he meets, which I highly doubt, or he's trying to use this against me. He's either doing this to intimidate me, or he wants something out of Rachel. He might be admitting that he's Kira by doing this by saying 'If you get close to me, I can take your girl' but that would mean that I'm a threat to Kira. And if I was a threat, wouldn't Kira just kill him me? Unless Kira couldn't kill me with a heart attack… it would probably look too suspicious, but it could also mean that Kira might not be able to kill me. But why? He knows my name and face… maybe Kira's killing method doesn't work with an alias. Of course, this is all on the basis that Light really is Kira.'

"Well, I'm going to go and study." Light said as he finished his meal, and put the dish in the sink.

"But it's winter break!" Sayu whined. "You can't still be doing stuff for school!"

"I don't want to lose everything I've learned. I won't be long." Light said with a smile as he walked upstairs.

"Hey Conan! Help me clean up here!" Rachel called from the sink.

And for the rest of the morning, while Light 'studied' which for him means writing names down in the death note, Conan helped Rachel clean up and wash clothes to his dismay. Around when it was time for lunch, everyone headed to the door. The bus ride there was a quite one for the guys while the girls continued to chat amongst themselves.

"So where are we going anyways?" Sayu asked her brother as they exited the bus.

"A Chinese Restaurant." Light had finally decided. If everyone ordered one of the 5$ lunch specials, the bill would come to around 40$. Expensive, but better then if he went to a normal restaurant, and getting fast food was just too embarrassing for treating Rachel to.

"You mean that one?" Rachel said pointing to the one across the street.

"Works for me." Richard said already walking in before anyone could say something.

Light sighed as he headed across the street. He then held the door open for Rachel, making sure to keep a smile on. 'My wallet may have it's funeral today, but at least it's going down for a good cause. Getting to this kid, and to L'

Conan just made sure to keep an eye on Light for the time. He might have opened the door for Rachel, but no way was he going to pull out her seat or anything.

* * *

Yes, I have added romance! I'll try to keep it to a minimum... but I'm not making any promises. Review please! You're lucky to get a chapter the day before final exams so thank me!


	10. Lovebirds

Author's note: I have no excuse for being absent. Just a lack of inspiration. This original chapter included a Chinese Restaurant, all for the purpose of having the joke "Do not be Mellow for success is Near." in a fortune cookie. Seriously. I then realized that while the joke was kind of funny (If it's Mello opening the cookie next to near) but going to a Chinese restaurant is just a retardidea. Excessive amounts of Shojo do remain in this chapter! As you can tell by the title. Because of it, the romance factor will be drasticly cut by the next chapter! But as for now, I had the inspiration to write this. Mostly because I've been reading a lot of Shojo manga recently, and I just re-read the first volume of death note. (I bet Light and Ryuuk felt awkward sitting on a stack of 20 girlie manga such as Tail of the Moon and Mars) I've started getting into Hikaru no Go too. I can't believe that the same guy went on to draw Death Note. It doesn't make sense. Although it would be fun to see Ryuuk and Sai in a fight! It's obvious who would win, but it would just be worth it to see Sai act like his usual sissy self. Anyways, you can once again thank my sis for this chapter isnce she's the one that checked out the death note manga.

* * *

**Chapter 10- Lovebirds**

When Conan first woke up, the first thing he spied was the smug look on Light's face. He was still dosing off, yet somehow, even in his dreams, he was confident about something. Whatever he was up to, it would have to wait. Conan got dressed, and as he was putting on his glasses, Light's alarm clock went off with the theme of some band called Nightmare playing. Once the band got to some verse about showing a new world, Light arose, still as smug as ever. "Have sweet dreams?" Conan questioned.

"Yes, but it also has to do with the fact that I've got something important to do today." Light said as he picked out a crisp shirt out of his closet.

Conan couldn't help noticing that the clothes he was picking out were a bit better quality then everything else in his closet. What was he going on a date or something? That's when Conan realized it. A date? It couldn't be with Rachel… they just met… and Conan had been watching the both of them carefully. He couldn't have asked her on a date… maybe it was just some other girl. Light looked like the type to have plenty of girls all over him. It just had to be a coincidence. But just in case, he'd have to keep his eyes on his roommate.

As Light walked down the stairs, he immediately noticed Conan watching him. Good. The kid would have to know what was going on for his plan to succeed. And just as he thought, Sayu and Rachel were in the kitchen making breakfast.

"Come on, tell me what he's like!" Sayu urged Rachel as she moved some pancakes off the skillet and onto a plate. "Is he usually that mysterious to make a phone call in the dead of night, or was he just trying to be romantic?"

"He's nothing like that." Rachel said blushing as she grilled some bacon. "He's more annoying… he only calls about once every few weeks or something. I haven't actually seen his face in over a year."

"Maybe it's like one of those romantic movies, and he's actually dead, but he knew he was going to die in advanced, so he set up recorded calls for you, and he knows you so well, he predicted everything you'd say, and then when the final call comes, he'll tell you he knew he was going to die, but his life was worth while, because he got to know you and loves you more then anything." Sayu swooned.

Rachel turned a brighter red. "Jimmy's not dead! And he wouldn't do anything like that. We're just friends!" It was then that she realized that her bacon was starting to sizzle to a coal black. Rachel, immediately realizing this moved the bacon onto the plate. But it was too late. They were crisped alright.

"Hey are you two cooking? Be careful with Sayu in there." Light joked as he walked toward the dining room table.

"Hey, Rachel's the one that messed up… although it was her idea for us to cook breakfast" Sayu said in her defense.

Rachel felt embarrassed for burning the food. "I just wanted to do something nice since you've been putting up with us."

This was too easy. Light just walked into the kitchen and picked up a fork to bring a slice of the burnt bacon to his lips. After taking a bite he smiled. "Just you putting an effort into it is enough for me."

Rachel blushed a bit. She seemed to be doing it a lot this morning. "It was nothing…" She said trying to be humble.

Conan was getting irritated. He had defiantly crossed the line. What was with his flirting?! He had to do something. That's when Conan walked in the kitchen. "Rachel! Are you ok! I smelt smoke! I thought that something bad had happened to you!" And that's when the fake tears started to form in Conan's eyes. "I thought I almost lost my big sister."

Rachel smiled as she set down her frying pan and kneeleddown to give Conan a hug. "It's ok. If the house burned down, I'd be the last one you'd have to worry about."

Light looked down as Conan smirked as he embraced Rachel. He actually thought this was over? "Hey Rachel, since you're treating me to breakfast, it's only fair that I treat you to lunch to pay you back." Light offered.

"Oh I couldn't… I'm only doing this to pay you back." Rachel said as she put her pan in the sink to start washing it off.

"I insist. My treat. Or do you have something else to do with your day?" Light asked pretending to look a bit disappointed.

"Well… no." Rachel admitted. "Lunch out would be nice. You could show me around town."

Conan didn't like the idea of leaving the two alone. Luckily, as a kid, he was usually able to get himself into all kinds of events. "Can I come too?" Conan asked putting on his cutest face. "Please?"

"It's rude to invite yourself like that Conan." Rachel scolded him. "It's up to Light if he wants you to come."

It was obvious that Light didn't want a little kid around while he worked his magic. But he couldn't be rude and just brush the kid off. "How about you go out with Sayu?" Light suggested. "I'll show Rachel around, and Sayu can take care of Conan for the day?"

"That's perfect!" Sayu exclaimed. "He's so cute! Like a little brother! For once I'll be the wise and mature one!"

"Is she even old enough to go out on her own?" Rachel whispered to Light.

"She's actually more mature then she appears." Light admitted.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "She burned the first batch of bacon this morning."

'And you burned the second.' Light thought to himself. "She'll be fine with Conan. Besides, I'm sure they'll just go to the park or something."

"Well…" Rachel was still a bit worried. But she was interested in seeing the town. "Alright then! Let's go!"

And with that, Light being the polite gentleman opened the door for Rachel and they were off.

Conan had to follow them, but what was he going to do about Sayu? He could try and figure out how to escape, but that would just mean he'd have Light's little sister chasing him all day. He didn't think Light would be as devious as to have his little sister spy on his every move all day… but then again, he could never be too careful.

"So, what do you want to do?" Sayu asked leaning down to Conan's level… which wasn't much considering she didn't exactly have her brother's height.

Conan had to figure out something to say. "I'm worried about Rachel."

A glint appeared in Sayu's eye. While Conan was figuring out a way to follow them, Sayu had the same exact thing going in her mind… but for other reasons. "You wanted to see the perfect romance occur and watch it through your own eyes, like some Shojo manga come to reality, didn't you?" Sayu then began fantasizing about her brother and Rachel's new found 'relationship'.

Conan didn't agree with this at all… but it would get him an excuse to follow the pair! "Sure!" Was Conan's only statement. 'The shorter it is, easier for me to prevent myself from saying how I think her brother is a womanizer.'

"Hey, if they get married, then that will make us step-siblings!" Sayu cheered picking Conan up and spinning around with her fantasy.

Conan simply felt like he wanted to barf every second she continued with her fantasy. "You do realize me and Rachel aren't related."

Sayu didn't like his attitude. "Do you want to follow them or not?"

"Yes!" Conan exclaimed immediately.

"Then we got to get moving. We've probably already missed the bus, and there are several places my brother could have gone to take Rachel. If we don't get a move on, we'll miss their first kiss!" And with that, Sayu grabed her coat and ran out the door with Conan following.

It took about an hour for Sayuand Conan to track the 'couple' down. While Conan was a master detective, he was clueless on the matters of love. Sayu had more information on her brother's constant dating habits, but it still took them a while to see them. By the time Rachel and Light were found, they were sipping Coffee at a casual café.

"-and then dad just acted like an idiot as if he forgot that he was the one that provided the missing clue to the whole case!" Rachel explained laughing.

"But even with his jokes aside, he really is a brilliant detective." Light said keeping up with the small talk. 'He's just as much as a fool that I thought he was. But it's not a very good idea to insult future girlfriend's fathers.'

Conan couldn't help feel amused by Light's statement. 'Seeing as I'm the one doing all the work for Richard, in a way, he kind of just gave me a compliment.' He thought to himself.

"Awe, just small talk? We have to get things moving!" Sayu exclaimed as the self proclaimed cupid. Before Conan could stop her, she was already whispering something to the waitress.

The waitress smiled and nodded. She took the bill out of Sayu's hand and headed to the back of the restaurant. Minutes later she came out with a plate for the two 'lovebirds'.

"One 'Strawberry Sweetheart cake'." The waitress said laying down a pink slice of cake with a strawberry and a heart shaped flag on top of the cake.

Rachel hadn't seen Light order anything other than the two coffees, and she hadn't left the table. 'Did he plan all of this?' It was sort of sweet of him. He had probably gone through a lot more trouble for this date then she realized. No wonder he didn't want Conan around.

Light was just as confused, but he figured he would go with it. Maybe the waitress wanted his number or something and wanted to suck up to him to get it.

"Mission accomplished!" Sayu announced as she returned to Conan's side at the street corner. "But those cakes are way too expensive! 1,000 yen for a slice of cake is burning a hole in my pocket… but their burning love is worth it!"

"Are you crazy?!" Conan exclaimed. He couldn't believe she had just pushed them closer together. But he had to come up with a excuse quick for that outburst. "What if they figured out we were watching them! It would make things really awkward!"

"Oh… hadn't thought of that. I gue-" But Sayu was immediately distracted by Rachel and Light continuing to talk.

"There's something I wanted to let you know." Light began. He started acting all shy. Girls seemed to enjoy a boy that could be shy and sensitive. They thought it looked cute. "Can I talk to you… in private?" He gestured to the group of people around them. No one was listening to them, but Light wanted to go to a more romantic place.

Rachel blushed a bit. Was he admitting his love to her already? It was only one date. Well he was forward. Then again, they didn't have much time together anyways. She nodded her head. "So where do you want to go?"

Conan's eyes were wide. She was actually going along with it? He had to stop her.

"We better give the two love birds their privacy." Sayu said giggling. "I'm sure they'll tell us all about their new found love when they get home."

"No! Don't you want to see it?" Conan stumbled. What happened to the intrusive little sister?!

"You wouldn't interrupt the Lady and the Tramp would you? Let's leave them alone." She said imagining Rachel and Light eating a plate of spaghetti. She picked Conan up and started heading home.

Conan flailed his arms and legs trying to escape. Curse his kid body and Sayu's obsession with Shojo manga!

When they arrived home, Conan was cursed to the waiting game. What was going to happen. Would Rachel turn him down? Or would she fall to Light's charm? It wasn't an hour and a half later until the answer came.

The door opened and Sayu was excited. "What happened! Did you have a nice time? Did you kiss?" She was too excited to contain herself.

Light seemed to have a smile on his face, and Rachel with a light blush. "Well, you want to tell her?" Light asked smiling.

Rachel was a bit embarrassed but she nodded. "Me and Light… well… we've decided to… go out for a while. Kind of like-"

"Girlfriend and Boyfriend!" Sayu finished. "I knew it!" She was jumping up on the couch ecstatic. "True love concurs all!"

But Conan's face dropped. She was really going out with him? But what happened to the strong Rachel he knew. Did she really fall to his charm that easily?

"Conan?" Rachel called out seeing the boy on the couch. "Aren't you happy for us?"

"Yeah, whatever." Conan said heading upstairs. Why did it even bother him this much anyways? Rachel was just his friend. 'No, I just don't like the idea of her getting caught up with Light'. He tried to convince himself. But it didn't help much.

The night passed on. Rachel tried to make Conan smile on countless occasions, but he just seemed 'out of it' as Richard said before drinking another beer. But it didn't seem convincing enough.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Rachel asked as she tucked Conan into bed. She didn't normally do this, but he wasn't normally this depressed. "Is this about me and Light?"

Conan tried to put it in a way that it wouldn't seem strange that he'd be so interested in her love life. "I thought you were going to get together with Jimmy… and then we'd be distantly related."

Rachel frowned. "Well, Jimmy's not here, is he? But Light is. And he's a nice guy, so why do I have to sit around and wait for him to come back?"

Conan hated this answer even more. It just made him hate having to keep his secret even more. "But… if you said you liked him… why can't you wait? He'll come back." Conan said almost pleading. Was he really that much of a little kid now? He had no idea if he was acting anymore.

Rachel sighed. She looked back at the door. Light wasn't in yet. "You want to know a secret?"

Conan perked up. Was there hope? Or was it just a way to satisfy a disappointed child?

"Light made me promise not to say anything… but I don't like seeing you like this. Like I said, he's a nice guy. He just wants me to be happy." Rachel smiled at Conan. "I told him that I just didn't like him… at least, not the way I like Jimmy. He was disappointed… but he gave me an idea. He said that I could just act like he was my boyfriend. That maybe Jimmy would get jealous and come back. That even if I was in love with another person, that he'd just is happy to see me and Jimmy back together. He said to keep the fact that I didn't like him as a boyfriend secret so everyone around us would know we were going out… so Jimmy could come back and I can see how he feels about me."

Conan instantly turned red. It was just like the first night he spent with Rachel as Conan when she told him she liked Jimmy… without knowing he was Jimmy. "So… that's it. You're just trying to make Jimmy jealous?"

Rachel nodded. "But don't tell Light that you know… I think he might think he still has a chance with me. But don't worry. If he tries anything… well, you know how many karate tournaments I've won." She said with a smile.

"You're the best Rachel!" Conan cheered going back into the little brother like relationship with Rachel. 'She really doesn't like him. It's just to get to me!' Conan thought to himself. That was assuring.

"Good night Conan." Rachel said smiling as she walked out the door.

Although Conan was happy with this discovery, he was also wondering about one thing. 'Light wanted to at least make me think that she was going out with him. But what about if Jimmy actually showed up? He's got no idea that I'm actually a kid. Would he really let a plan fall apart easily by having Jimmy, the person Rachel's really in love with show up? He doesn't seem like someone to ignore the facts. Is he that confident with his hold on Rachel?

Or is he that sure that Jimmy _won't_ come back?

* * *

And now, I have no clue when the next one will be written. Just keep this on the alert list. My sister is going to be checking out more death note and case closed for inspiration, but don't expect to have another chapter up by next week. Just review and pray that writer's block doesn't strike me again. Lots of reviews work as great Writer's block repellent!


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